Sometimes something so right occurs and it surprises you. I think we forget sometimes how capable we all are of good. This story from the Dallas Morning News is quite simply beautiful:
Never has the selection of a homecoming queen sent so many tears falling so freely. Here it is:
Kristin Pass, an 18-year-old senior with Down syndrome, became Aledo High School’s homecoming queen Friday to a joyous standing ovation and the flutter of a thousand tissues on a remarkable night for an amazing young woman.
Her grandfather, Dr. David Campbell of Corsicana, escorted her onto the field and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as Kristin joined eight other young women in the Homecoming Court to await the results of the vote, cast by the 360-plus members of Aledo High’s senior class.
Erica Pace, Kristin Pass and Kelsey Williams (left to right) pose for a photo after homecoming festivities at Aledo High School. Ms. Pass was named homecoming queen.
View larger More photos Photo store Then came the announcement … and pandemonium.“Oh my gosh! I was sitting in the student section and everyone stood up, crying and cheering for Kristin,” said longtime friend and fellow senior Meaghan Geary, 17, who first met Kristin in the third grade. “It was great!”
Carolyn Pass stood at the edge of the football field, taking pictures of her daughter and friends’ daughters in the court, when the stadium erupted.
“It’s just something you can’t even imagine,” she said. “And afterward, everyone was just running down to her, congratulating her. And the other girls in the court, they’re all just beautiful girls, inside and out.”
How great is that story. For this to occur, with the backdrop of an abortion rate of 90 percent for Down’s Syndrome babies is counter-cultural and beautiful. I know many people fret and worry over “the next generation.” Sometimes I think that the next one might be a far sight better than the ones preceding them.
These young men and women saw past her Downs Syndrome and saw a girl who loved others and accepted them for who they were. She did the unthinkable in high school- she looked past how cool someone was. Her mother said, “Kristin has a lot of friends – she likes everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re tall or short, pretty, not pretty, smart, not smart – she likes everybody. She has great friends. And Aledo is a great community.”
We can look at this story and its implications for our society but most importantly Kristin was so thrilled that she took her crown to bed with her.
October 13, 2008 at 9:53 pm
This is a good story, but knowing the mean spirit of kids today she more than likely nominated and elected as a joke. To say that X number of students voted for her because they saw her beauty and human worth is a stretch. Maybe I am selling the students at the school short, I’m just saying I don’t buy it. She is more likely the butt of a joke than a well loved special needs child.
October 13, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I disagree, hoosierdad. If you read the story, as I did, it sounded like the student body was genuinely cheering for Kristin. There isn’t any mention of snickering or laughing. It also sounds like she grew up with all of these kids and had personal relationships with some of them, leaving me to believe this could not have been just a joke. Goodness does exist in the world. It’s too bad we have become so cynical we cannot recognize when it does happen.
October 13, 2008 at 10:30 pm
hoosierdad,
dude, nice worldview. Holy cow!
October 14, 2008 at 1:00 am
wonderful story. I’m posting it at my blog. This is a beautiful story that everyone should have a chance to read. Thanks, Annie
October 14, 2008 at 1:07 am
Hoosierdad. First, I am amazed you are a dad and could think like you do. I hope you are not teaching your children to think that way. I agree with the past poster, it was obvious that this was genuine, do you really think the crowd faked their tears as a joke. I am a mother of a beautiful 4 year old with Down syndrome and no one treats him as a “joke”, at his elementary school they accept him. My little guy started reading at age two, did your kids? He could spell his name before he was two, could yours? I hope you take the opportunity to meet someone with Down syndrome, if you do you will be as blessed as the people who know Kristen.
October 14, 2008 at 3:22 am
Beautiful story, Matthew!
Hoosierdad, consider this quote from the article, from the girl’s best friend: “”She’s the person we all want to be,” Meaghan said.”
I believe this is a genuinely good story; I also believe, given that the Dallas Morning News isn’t exactly a pushover paper, that if there had been any hint of a mean prank or joke they’d have uncovered it. This story is what it is: something beautiful.
October 14, 2008 at 3:38 am
Beautiful!
October 14, 2008 at 3:41 am
Wrong, wrong, wrong, HoosierDad. When my (evil, wicked, godless, satanic, blah-blah-blah) public school made an excellent decision to blend more of the special populations into the general school population, some of the unlikeliest people (the kind you were glad to see in class; that way you knew your tires were safe) became protectors and nurturers. I’ve seen this sort of thing; this is real. Give kids a chance.
— Mack, evil, wicked, godless, blah-blah-blah public-school teacher
October 14, 2008 at 4:30 am
What a wonderful, and I think, increasingly common, story! My young daughter has Down syndrome and we’ve experienced such genuine kindness from others. HoosierDad is thankfully, very wrong. Yes, there are unfortunately those out there who take advantage of others’ differences (whether they are ‘disabled’ or in another category) to make jokes and belittle them, but let’s not encourage and perpetuate it by cynically assuming that everyone has such miserable and immature intentions. I only hope you are not passing on such attitudes to your children.
October 14, 2008 at 4:59 am
As further evidence that this can happen,last year the Turnabout King elected at my children’s public high school was a senior with Down syndrome. My daughter is active in Best Buddies and said he was very popular because he talked to everyone in the building. She got a kick out of him because he was Catholic and reminded everyone to go to church on holy days and knew the mass times and priests at every parish in the area. She said the reaction at the assembly where the King was announced was very much like the one described in this article. Sometimes those darn teenagers can surprise us by how terrific they can be, not just individually but in large groups too. I hope HoosierDad has an experience like this someday.
October 14, 2008 at 5:55 am
I think children see the truth in those around them…and I am convinced through personal experience that they will always be this way. Didn’t Our Lord validate this?
I’ve seen several examples of groups of children not just accepting, but embracing Down Syndrome peers and showing the adults in their lives just how wonderful it is to have a friendship with a DS child.
Shame on hoosierdad for thinking that this story could only be a joke. I choose to believe that our young people can see the worth in every person.
Ask a child some time about abortion. He or she will tell you, straight out, how stupid it is to think that unborn babies aren’t people.
“Unless you become like one of these…”
Thank you, Matthew, for bringing this wonderful story to our attention.
October 14, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Let’s everyone back off of Hoosierdad for a minute and stop over-reacting. We all know that much of the the world and the people in it are mean-spirited and spiteful. It is not unreasonable to think, as he did, that high school kids could orchestrate a prank. He is not endorsing it. Stop attacking him. Some of you should definitely apologize. Sorry to call you out, but seriously.
That being said, this is a wonderful story and a testament to the fact that humans can actually be good sometimes! *shocking* Congratulations Aledo High School students!
Pax,
Matthew
October 14, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I thought maybe you were exaggerating about the 90% abortion rate for Down’s so I googled it and found the stat in a NY Times article.
It brings into sharp focus the perversity of abortion – if a child can be aborted for this reason, how much longer until it is acceptable to abort for some other perceived “defect”?
October 14, 2008 at 7:13 pm
hoosierdad sounds like he is speaking from experience. My autistic son was ridiculed, berated, and emotionally tortured until we pulled him out of school in 5th grade to homeschool. That being said, I spend a lot of time with teenagers and find them refreshingly without guile and accepting of very many people we adults would have problems with. I’ve no problem believing that this wonderful event occurred and that she is a great queen.
Sharon
October 15, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Beautiful story, but really not that unusual. We had a Down’s homecoming queen AND king at our local high school a few years ago.
Search Down’s Syndrome (king or queen) to get a whole list. More and more kids are coming to realize the loving joy that most Down’s children are to have.
To think it was some sort of joke is cyniciam of the worst kind.