A school resource officer at Livonia High School found himself facing down an unexpected campus visitor this week: an alligator that had wandered onto school grounds. Deputy Michael Murphy removed the reptile from the Livonia, Louisiana campus, and no students or teachers were bitten or otherwise harmed, according to the sheriff's office.
The encounter was first reported by WBRZ, which noted that the alligator was found on Livonia High School's campus and that Murphy, acting as the school's resource officer, removed it from the property. Per deputies, the animal was taken off campus safely, with the sheriff's office confirming that no students were harmed during the encounter.
A Rural Campus Adjusting to a Wild Neighbor
Livonia High School sits at 3118 LA Highway 78 and serves roughly 890 to 1,000 students in grades 7 through 12 across southern Pointe Coupee Parish, according to Niche. The campus is the primary public high school for the town of Livonia and the surrounding rural stretches of the parish, putting it squarely in territory where wildlife sightings are not unheard of.
The alligator turned up during the second week of the 2026–2027 school year, which the Pointe Coupee Parish School System began in mid-August, according to the district. That timing meant the campus was fully active with students and staff on hand when the animal was spotted, adding urgency to the deputy's response.
Sheriff's Office Provides the School's Security Backbone
Murphy's presence on campus traces back to the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff's Office, which supplies school resource officers to public schools throughout the parish to help maintain campus security, per the agency. Sheriff Rene' Thibodeaux has led the parish agency since July 2020, according to the sheriff's Facebook page.
Local law enforcement officers across South Louisiana routinely end up handling impromptu alligator captures and relocations when state wildlife agents are tied up on higher-priority calls elsewhere, a pattern documented in similar removals in St. Landry, Livingston, and Terrebonne parishes, according to KATC. That regional habit reflects a simple reality: deputies are often already on scene while state agents may be responding from far away.
Why Gators Keep Turning Up Near People
Louisiana's wild American alligator population has ballooned from under 100,000 to more than 3 million over the past 50 years, with nearly 1 million more kept on commercial farms statewide, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. That growth helps explain why encounters like the one at Livonia High keep cropping up in developed areas across the state.
The department licenses specialized nuisance alligator hunters who capture and remove more than 1,000 nuisance alligators every year, and it operates an Enforcement Dispatch hotline for wildlife emergencies, though local officers frequently step in directly when an immediate safety hazard appears, as reported by WWL-TV. Officials also warn that heavy rain or rising floodwaters routinely displace alligators into residential and public areas, and they caution the public never to feed or approach them, since feeding causes the animals to lose their natural fear of people.
Wild alligators are protected under Title 56 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, meaning unauthorized taking, poaching, or illegal possession can carry strict criminal penalties, according to Justia Law. That legal framework is part of why removals like the one at Livonia High typically fall to trained officers or licensed handlers rather than bystanders.
State Lawmakers Respond to Growing Gator Numbers
The Livonia incident lands months after Governor Jeff Landry signed Act 37 into law in May, creating Louisiana's first-ever recreational alligator hunting season aimed at managing the state's expanding alligator population and addressing nuisance complaints, according to the Bossier Press-Tribune. Whether the Livonia High alligator's size or eventual destination will be disclosed remains unclear, and it is not known whether state wildlife officials were contacted after the campus removal.
For now, Pointe Coupee Parish's second week of classes ended with one less reptile on school grounds and no injuries reported. It is the latest in a string of similar campus encounters this month, following an alligator removed from a Kissimmee high school practice and another that camped out near a Coconut Creek campus days before classes began.
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