Third-Grade Students Find 4-Foot-Long Boa Constrictor In Classroom

PRINCETON, N.J. (CBS) -- A group of third-graders made quite the discovery inside their New Jersey classroom on Tuesday.

According to NJ.com, students at the Riverside Elementary School in Princeton found a 4-foot-long boa constrictor that made its way into the classroom.

The room was quickly evacuated as the school's science teacher removed the snake.

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The school told NJ.com that the boa constrictor was actually sick and the students finding it probably saved its life.

"This has been a joyous story for us," Riverside Principal Valerie Ulrich told NJ.com. "Our discovery saved the snake's life."

The school believes the scent of a female boa constrictor that the third-grade class is taking care of might have attracted the snake.

"The teacher used the surprising discovery as a teachable moment and asked the students to write a fictional story imagining where the snake came from," Princeton Schools spokeswoman Brenda Sewell told NJ.com.

Officials do not know where the boa constrictor came from.

A Montgomery Township animal control officer took the snake and it is currently being cared for in a rescue center. If no one claims it in seven days, it will be put up for adoption.

Boa constrictors are not poisonous snakes.