A Julian Newman Elementary School student found himself displaced at the Nashville Zoo during a field trip on Monday.

“Athens City Schools can confirm that an elementary school student was left at the Nashville Zoo while on a field trip on Monday, March 21. A parent of the student involved has asked us not to comment any more than necessary, and we want to honor that request,” said Athens City Schools in a Statement.

The student was reunited with his parents during the afternoon, after being in the custody of zoo security for 2 hours.

“The student was safe with a Nashville Zoo employee until picked up by his parents, and school officials communicated regularly with the parents and zoo personnel until arrival back to Alabama,” said ACS.

According to Jim Bartoo, director of Marketing and Public Relations at the Nashville Zoo, the student approached a worker concerned the group had left him behind. This action initiated the zoo’s lost child protocol.

“We will send out a radio announcement and ask other staff to start looking around for the description, if we get a description, and then we stay with that person until they’re reunited again,” said Bartoo. “In this case, this young boy walked up to one of our employees in one of our restaurants and indicated that he thought his group may have left him, so we contacted security.”

To receive group admission rates, schools must register the contact information for the school. This registration allowed the zoo to contact the school to notify them of the displaced student.

“He was able to tell us the name of the school, and we were able to look that up and contact the school,” said Bartoo. “I’m not really quite sure what happened on the school’s end of things, but the child stayed with us until the parents came and picked him up.”

“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. As you can imagine, we are all devastated that this occurred. We are currently reviewing this matter and our field trip procedures,” said Beth Patton, ACS superintendent.