'What is wrong with her?' Student's 'crazy' graduation photo sparks criticism
A university graduate has been questioned over her decision to pose with an alligator for her graduation photograph.
Makenzie Alexi Noland, 21, who was graduating from Texas A&M on Friday, donned her cap and gown and waded into knee-deep water for her graduation picture with a 3.9-metre, 453-kilogram alligator named Big Tex.
The 21-year-old told KTXS 12 ABC, Tex is one of her best friends and she regularly tickles the gator’s nose and gives him kisses.
She shared her graduation pic with her snappy friend on Facebook and the photos have more than 4,900 shares with many claiming Ms Noland was “crazy” for getting photos with a large alligator.
“Oh, Hell no,” one user wrote.
One man suggested the gator was “well fed” before the photos were taken.
“What the Hell is wrong with her?” another wrote.
“You A&M folks are straight crazy,” another said.
However, not everyone was negative about the photographs.
“I just love your passion and enthusiasm,” one man wrote.
Another said it was “the best senior pic” they had seen while someone else labelled the photos as “kind of bada**”.
“You’re genuinely an awesome person,” another man wrote.
Big Tex is a resident of alligator rescue park Gator Country, and according to the park, in 2016 held the national record for the largest live-captured nuisance gator.
The pair have a bit of history. Ms Noland interned at the park in May and June, and earlier wrote on Facebook in May she’d been working her way to gaining the trust of Big Tex by feeding him.
“This is no small task, in fact Tex is very picky about who can get in and feed him,” she wrote.
Ms Noland’s graduation photograph isn’t the only one to go viral in the past 12 months.
In May, Kaitlin Bennett from Kent State University in Ohio stirred up controversy after she was snapped carrying an automatic rifle outside her uni.
Her post saw her and her boyfriend receive death threats.
In more heart-warming news, Dalton Jackson, who was graduating high school in Tennessee, was filmed visiting his sick mum in hospital.
The high school graduate’s classmates attended in graduation attire while the school principal handed him his certificate.
Dalton then helped his mum out of bed to celebrate him finishing out of high school with a special dance.
