A field trip to the Chesterfield Mall for students with special needs was disrupted Thursday when teachers say an employee at the Bath and Body Works refused to allow their group to enter the store.

Seventeen students from Fort Zumwalt North High School went on the trip to practice life skills, and were in small groups with staff to find stores and products in a scavenger hunt activity.

They were welcomed at other stores in the mall, but a worker stopped the groups before they walked into Bath and Body Works, saying they could not come in, Principal Joe Sutton said. The denial prompted some of the students to ask why they weren’t allowed to get things at the store.

The employee apparently assumed the group wouldn’t be buying anything and was concerned that if they walked past the sensor that tracks the number of people in the store each day, it would hurt their sales percentage.

The teachers and staff members on the trip were extremely frustrated and disappointed, and spoke with the mall manager as well as sharing the story on social media Thursday evening.

The trip turned out to be more than a life skills and social skills lesson, they were exposed to discrimination, one staff member posted on Facebook.