Call it a selfie gone wrong: the Toronto Zoo is investigating two high school students who posted a video of themselves trespassing to photograph Humphrey the polar bear cub during a school field trip.

The video — sent to the Star by one of the students — shows two teenagers from Michael Power/St. Joseph High School jumping a zoo barrier and approaching the polar bear cub.

“That’s actually so mean, he needs more attention,” one of the students is heard saying. “Tell us if someone is coming!”

The students are seen reaching through the wire fence and touching Humphrey, who tries to lick them.

“We liked the polar bear and wanted a picture of it,” said Samuel Gonzalez, who took the selfie video. “It looked lonely, so we thought, ‘Oh let’s just go closer and take a picture.’ ”

Gonzalez and his friend, Georgianna Nagy, both 16, were told by a zoo employee not to touch the bear and leave the fenced-off area. Gonzalez said they complied and continued with the field trip.

Before they left the zoo, a second staff member came over and told them not to trespass in the future.

“They were really nice about it,” said Gonzalez. “We thought it was like a slap on the wrist or something.”

Gonzalez later posted the trespassing video to his Instagram account and thought the matter was over.

But when he returned to school this past Tuesday, he was in for a surprise.

“The vice-principal was really mad with us,” said Gonzalez. “Other teachers told me that the whole school — 2,500 students — was banned from the zoo for life. And that (the zoo) wanted to press charges against us or something. I was like, ‘OK, what?’ ”

Zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Tracey said this is not the case. “We are an educational institute and so are they,” she said. “We would never ban a school for life.”

Tracey said the zoo first saw the video on social media and is taking the matter very seriously.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation with the co-operation of the school involved,” said Tracey. “The investigation is still open so I can’t comment much more, but we want to resolve this directly with the school without contacting the Toronto Police Service.”

The zoo has three adult polar bears as well as Humphrey the cub. They are kept behind two barriers for safety, Tracey said.

“It’s basically a double barrier, with signs clearly posted in front of it: ‘Do not cross the barriers, danger,’ ” she said. “And the students apparently jumped it. It’s kind of ridiculous what they’ve done. It shows an absolute disregard for rules and regulations.”

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Joseph Brisbois, principal of Michael Power, said he has no idea why Gonzalez thinks all students will be banned for life from the zoo.

“None of that’s true,” said Brisbois. “We want to make this an educational followup to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.”

Brisbois spoke with the zoo on Thursday and they are working to make this a learning experience for the students involved.

The school is also meeting with parents on Friday to discuss the incident. Gonzalez’s mother, Maria Ravelo, said she is not pleased with her son’s behaviour.

“I don’t approve of Samuel doing this,” she said. “He knows I am not happy with him. Teenagers always think they are right when they are wrong.”

Gonzalez said he now understands what he did was wrong, but at the time he didn’t see any signs telling them not to jump the fence. He said the cub looked lonely and he just wanted to get closer.

Humphrey and his two siblings were born last November but the other cubs died when their mother couldn’t produce enough milk to feed them.

Humphrey is now thriving and is beautiful, said Tracey, adding she understands why people want to get closer to the bear.

“But there are plenty of places to take pictures and selfies with Humphrey,” she said. “You do not have to jump a barrier to do that.”

Ravelo doesn’t think the school or the zoo should take drastic measures with the students. And while she’s not excusing her son’s behaviour, she has a question of her own.

“Teenagers will do things to be cool — and they were at the zoo,” she said. “Why were they unsupervised? Teachers should have been there, or they should have asked for parents to come along. That’s what I plan to ask the school.”