Student left behind at zoo 100 miles away during Alabama elementary school field trip

Madeleine List
·1 min read

The parents of an Alabama elementary school student were forced to drive more than 100 miles from Huntsville to pick up their son at the Nashville Zoo this week after his school group left him behind on a field trip, media outlets report.

The child, identified as Julian Newman Elementary School student Sailor Davis, was at the jungle gym when he lost the group on Monday, March 21, his mother told WAAY-TV.

Sailor then walked into a restaurant at the zoo and told employees that he was lost, a zoo spokesperson told WHNT. Zoo officials then implemented their “lost child protocol” and contacted the Athens City Schools district.

“We kept him safe and in a room, he was watching cartoons, took a nap for a while, you know he was okay,” the zoo spokesman told WHNT. “I think that like anybody who gets separated from their group, he was a little nervous about that for the most part. We took really good care of him.”

McClatchy News has reached out to Athens City Schools and is awaiting a response.

In a statement sent to local media outlets, including WAFF, Athens City Schools Superintendent Beth Patton confirmed that the child had been left behind and said she would review the district’s field trip policies.

“We are so glad that the student was safe and knew what procedures to follow, and we appreciate the protocols in place at the zoo for instances such as this,” she said in the statement. “As you can imagine, we are all devastated that this occurred. We are currently reviewing this matter and our field trip procedures.”