MELBOURNE, Fla. – In Central Florida, some ducks swim in our lakes, some migrate here for the winter, and some ducks graduate elementary school, figuratively speaking.
'Sergio' the duck, a class pet for sixth-graders at Suntree Elementary, walked with students at Tuesday's graduation ceremony.
Graduating sixth-graders say Sergio is more than a class pet, he's like a brother.
"Everyone is going to miss Sergio a lot," said Julia Audino, who graduated Tuesday. "Not many people have a duck as a pet."
Julia spoke to News 6 on behalf of her classmates, who call each other, "The Sergio Squad."
The children took responsibility to care for Sergio during the school year.
Suntree sixth-graders typically hatch chicken eggs during the year, but this class ducked-out of tradition and went fowl.
They started with 30 or 40 eggs but only one "miracle" duckling hatched.
"Since he's so cute and he's the only one who hatched and he's like the miracle duck, we decided to keep him," said Julia.
And try to make him a star.
Sergio has his own Instagram account. He took a selfie Tuesday in a News 6 vehicle.
Later, and unexpectedly, he went the bathroom on the front passenger seat.
News 6 asked students to share a favorite story of Sergio and like what happened in the news van, the story also involved a bathroom break.
"So one time when Sergio was a month old and Tommy was playing with him, he was sitting on Tommy's lap and he was not wearing his diaper," said Julia.
You can guess what happened next.
"It was very unpleasant," said Tommy Tibbetts, who also graduated Tuesday.
Joking aside, what's undoubtedly a joy is some of these students say they'll come back to visit Sergio next year.
To follow Sergio on Instagram, search @sergiotheduck