A Kentucky teacher is being praised this week after he carried a 10 year-old disabled student on his back so she could go on a field trip hiking in a state park.

Jim Freeman, a teacher at Tully Elementary in Louisville, carried student Ryan Neighbors, who suffers from spina bifida, on his back last Wednesday so she could join her classmate on a trip to Falls Of The Ohio. Since Ryan is confined to a wheelchair, she has missed out on previous field trips like this one, and Jim was not about to let this happen again.

Plans were put in place for Ryan to have an “alternate” excursion, but then Jim volunteered at the last second to make sure she could take part in the actual field trip with the rest of her class. Photos posted to Facebook show Jim carrying Ryan around the park in a specially-made backpack.

“If I haven’t bragged on my kids’ school enough – well, listen to this,” Ryan’s mother Shelly King wrote on Facebook. “They [Neighbors and her class ] went on a field trip to Falls Of The Ohio today. Obviously, NOT accessible. 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!”

“thank you Christie Pile for giving me these back pack carriers, making this possible for Ryan,” Shelly added. “We are sooooo blessed to have an ENTIRE school that is so compassionate and empathetic and NEVER make her feel left out.”

Ryan was overjoyed that she got to go on the field trip with the rest of her class.

“I got to see the fossils and stuff. I was like, wow, that’s like, really cool. I haven’t gotten to see that before,” Ryan said.

Shelly later added even more praise to Jim.

“It melted my heart,” Shelly said. “He’s not even Ryan’s teacher and he was so pure hearted that he wanted to make sure that she was included and not left out and she got to feel like one of her peers.”

Jim, however does not see himself as having done anything heroic.

“This is just one physical act that you can see, but we do this countless times throughout the school day and throughout the year,” he said. “All the teachers here at Tully, they work harder than most people realize.”