Prom Queen Gives Her Crown to Special Needs Student
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iStock/Thinkstock(RIVERTON, Utah) — When the junior class at Riverton High School in Riverton, Utah, crowned its queen at the junior class prom, they thought the 2014 prom queen was in the school’s record books for good.
Little did they know that just three days later they would have a new prom queen after the classmate they elected made a selfless act.
On Wednesday, Kendra Muller, 16, the junior girl who was named prom queen on Saturday, walked into a classroom and handed her sash, tiara and title to Amanda Belnap, a special needs student who had been voted “first attendant,” or first runner-up.
“Kendra came into Amanda’s class and, in front of her peers and the teachers, said, ‘I thought that Amanda really deserves this honor,’” Riverton High Principal Carolyn Gough told ABC News. “It’s just absolutely one of the neatest things that I could ever imagine.”
Amanda, also 16 and a junior, is a cheerleader and well-known and well-loved by her fellow students, according to Gough. She and Kendra had never interacted, however, prior to Saturday’s prom.
Kendra, who was paralyzed in an accident nearly three years ago and is in a wheelchair, told Gough she had no idea her generous act would garner all the attention that it has.
“She said, ‘I just did it because I thought it was the right thing to do,’” Gough said.
Amanda, meanwhile, has been relishing in her new title, wearing her tiara and sash around school with a “grin from ear to ear,” according to Gough.
“The thing that is so remarkable about our school in general is that we’re oblivious to disabilities,” Gough said of the 2,050-student school she leads. “Students are very generous to other students in the school, seeking out ways to help and to serve.”
“How can you see this as anything else but just the most generous character in a student, especially for a student who genuinely deserved it herself,” Gough said. “This is just a bright spot for me.”
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio