When they’re not sexting, trying to be like Ke$ha, or having babies on reality TV, teenage girls can actually be really sweet, mature, and decent human beings. Two different graduating classes of seniors in two different states have crowned classmates with Down Syndrome as prom queens and king. In Loveland, Ohio Toni Alten-Crowe—who has been mainstreamed since preschool—was voted prom queen alongside Drew Anderson, another senior with Down Syndrome, as prom king. Of the crowning, fellow student Lauren Tipton said, “Everyone was excited about the result…Usually [people] just vote for their friends. Drew and Toni are friends with everybody.”
In Fair Grove High School, Missouri, the two other girls who were up against 19-year-old Maisie Garoutte— who also has Down Syndrome—decided to campaign on her behalf, making “Vote for Maisie” posters that hung in their school corridors. The principal and teachers at the school were not surprised when she won, saying that not only is Maisie super popular but that, “We have an incredible student body that works well with special-needs students.”
Girl with Down’s Syndrome crowned prom queen after even her RIVALS campaigned for her [Daily Mail]
Students honor special-needs peers at prom [USA Today]