LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A teacher with Jefferson County Public Schools is garnering national attention for the extra steps he took to make sure one special needs student got to go on a field trip with her classmates.
Ryan Neighbors, 10, fits right in every day in her fourth grade class at Tully Elementary School -- but she faces some challenges her classmates don't. Spina bifida left Ryan paralyzed from the waist down.
That meant when the class announced a field trip to the Falls of the Ohio on the steep banks of the river, Ryan wouldn't be able to go.
Shelly King, Ryan's mother, says she's used having to miss class field trips, and in the past, they employ a contingency plan.
"Normally we take educational days and take alternate field trips and her and I will do something separate if she goes somewhere that's not handicap accessible," she said.
But then King learned of a backpack she could borrow that could handle Ryan's weight of more than 50 pounds.
Shelly King
"I got really excited," Ryan said.
But someone needed to carry Ryan on his or her back.
That's when Mr. Freeman -- Mr. Jim Freeman, the teacher in the next-door classroom -- stepped up to the plate.
Jim Freeman, teacher at Tully Elementary School
"Mr Freeman came forward and said, 'I would love to carry her!' and I was just like, 'Oh my gosh ... she's going to be able to come back and talk about the same field trip with her friends and not go on a different experience!'" King said. "So it was like ... it melted my heart. I cried."
But Ryan just smiled as she saw everything her classmates got to experience.
"I got to see the Falls of the Ohio and, like, these like little fossils and, like, these little bones," Ryan said.
10-year-old Ryan Neighbors, Tully Elementary School student
All because a teacher decided to quite literally lighten the burden for Ryan by carrying her every step of the way.
"The back and the heat were fine, until I was resting later that afternoon," Freeman said. "I needed to put some ice on the knees, but I'm back to 100 percent."
And was it worth it?
"Oh, very much worth it!" Freeman said.
Ryan says it's something she'll never forget.
"He's really nice, and I'm glad he did that for me," she said.
Ryan's mom says she's been getting inquiries from other parents on social media who want to know what type of backpack Freeman used to carry a child of Ryan's size. That means more kids with physical challenges may soon be taking similar trips to the one Mr. Freeman made possible for Ryan.
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