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A field trip to the zoo took a troubling turn after a kindergartner is left behind Friday.
Six-year-old Santino Jones, Jr. went to the Detroit Zoo with his Bethune Elementary class for a fun filled trip. But when it was time to leave, everyone boarded the bus except him.
The bus was long gone and Santino was still on the zoo grounds. All alone, Santino said he knew the zoo cops would help him out.
"Somebody called the zoo cops and they picked me up," he said. "They brought me to the office."
Luckily, Santino Sr. had made sure that junior memorized dad's cell phone number just in case he was ever lost - like he was now.
But little Santino's family is upset, nonetheless.
"I got a call from the zoo police saying they had him, they told me he was lost for an hour," Santino Sr. said. "I think it's ridiculous."
"He had been looking for his class, he was looking at the polar bears and when he turned around, they weren't there."
When grandma heard Jr was alone at the zoo, she became as nervous remembering the young boy who was recently in the grasp of a gorilla in Cincinnati.
"A gorilla, or getting picked up by a pedophile," said Caroline Jones, Santino's grandmother. "Trying to cross the street and getting hit."
Bethune Elementary is an Education Achievement Authority state operated school near Puritan and Greenlawn.
Principal Dr. Antoinette Pearson released a statement on
"The 40 students were under the supervision of 11 school staff and volunteers during the field trip. However, the student walked off after the head count was complete and during a mild medical incident involving another student as they were boarding busses outside the zoo."
It's a good thing Santino remembered his father's cell phone number.
"I tried to teach him at an early age if he ever gets lost, my number," his dad said. "If anything, he can call me."