Kids & Lizards...can't decide which is grosser.

Yesterday there was a baby gecko cowering in the corner of the girls bathroom in my classroom. There was much crawling on the floor and speculation as to whether or not the thing was dead.
Finally a little girl's hand emerged from the bathroom, holding the gecko. She pronounced him dead, and I (stupidly) told her to put him in the garbage can and wash her hands.
About an hour later, I was reading with a small group when I hear a small hullabaloo...one of the boys in the class took the dead gecko from the garbage can and was playing with it. By the time I figured out who the culprit was, he had put the gecko in his pocket! A little bit wiser by this time, I told him to put the gecko outside (our classroom door opens up right to the outdoors, no enclosed hallways at our school) and watched him do it. When he came back in, I heard him explaining adamantly to the others that the gecko was, in fact, alive...he wasn't moving, but his eyes were open.
Shortly thereafter, we left for specials. When I walked back, I looked in the grass where I swear I saw him put the gecko...and it was gone! I find myself wondering if that little sneaky boy picked it back up and put it in his pocket when I wasn't looking (maybe he feigned tying his shoe or something?) or...if it really was alive! Do geckos play possum? I know they stand very still when they sense they're being watched, but I wonder if it could really be so...lifeless...while being handled by a bunch of 6 year olds!