TORONTO -- A Kentucky teacher carried a 10-year-old student on his back so she could enjoy a field trip to see a fossil bed that was not accessible by wheelchair.

Ryan King uses a wheelchair to get around because she was born with spina bifida, which occurs when the spine and spinal cord don't form properly during pregnancy.

And unfortunately, the Tully Elementary School student typically stays home during class trips to historical areas and parks which aren’t always accessible.

So for the class trip to see fossils at Indiana state park Falls of the Ohio, the family thought the same thing was going to happen.

During a phone interview with CTVNews.ca, her mother Shelly recalled thinking, “‘Oh my gosh -- another field trip she’s going to have to miss.’”

But in the days leading up to the trip, she received a surprise from Jim Freeman, one of the teachers at the school.

In a last week, the Louisville mother wrote: “I was preparing for an ‘alternate field trip day’ when a male teacher reached out and said ‘I’m happy to tote her around on the falls all day!’”

Freeman had overheard how King herself had thought to carry her daughter in a harness during the trip. “But why should mom do it?” King recalls Freeman telling her. “(Ryan) is your average teenage girl – she’s doesn’t want her mom around constantly.”


'My friends were a little jealous': Ryan

The teenager told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview that she felt Freeman’s gesture was “really special” and chuckled that “my friends were a lil’ jealous … because I got a piggyback ride.”

“It was fun,” she said. “I got to hike and see fossils and hang out with my friends.”

Dozens of news outlets across the U.S. have been reporting on the story and Ryan said the attention has been “really shocking.”

King has been touched by the parents and complete strangers reaching out online. Her daughter laughed that she’d been “watching my mom cry all day.”

In her Facebook post, King said she felt ”blessed to have an ENTIRE school that is so compassionate and empathetic and NEVER make her feel left out.”

Ryan has battled through 39 surgeries and her mother called her a “light.” She said her classmates don’t try to single her out and told CTVNews.ca “I think that’s why the kids at the school love her so much. She’s resilient and is just always so kind and caring.”

Although Ryan is the only student in a wheelchair at her school, the pre-teen had advice for other children facing accessibility challenges: “Don’t be scared. Be strong and say all your prayers.”

Earlier this summer, CTVNews.ca reported on a similar gesture involving someone carrying a person with spina bifida on their back. That story involved a Colorado woman born without the ability to walk teaming up with a man who lost his sight in order to climb a 4,200-metre mountain together.