It might be easy to dismiss high school bullying among girls as something out of “Mean Girls,” but the reality is that people can be cruel. That’s why we’re so encouraged by what happened when two girls made the best of a homecoming prank.
As NBCDFW reports, Anahi Alvarez and Naomi Martinez were both nominated for homecoming court; their friend, Lillian Skinner, was not. When Alvarez and Martinez heard that certain girls were trying to fool Skinner into believing she had been nominated, they made a pact: if one of them won, Lillian would wear the crown.
Martinez said the girls promised that there was “no backing down.” When Alvarez won, she called Lillian over and gave her the crown. In fact, when people ask her if she won, she says, “Lilly won. I just ran in her place, in her position…Lilly is homecoming queen.”
If that’s not the most heart-warming story to come out of a homecoming event in years, we don’t know what is. Unfortunately, as Mic reports, the rest of the world isn’t wired like these two wonderful Grand Prairie High School students; in fact, “more than 28% of U.S. students in grades 6 through 12 have been the victim of bullying, while 41% of school staff report seeing bullying once a week or more.”
We know this is just a story of three girls in one high school in north Texas, but we hope what Alvarez and Martinez did inspires students all over the world. “Mean Girls” might be an excellent movie, but it’s a terrible reality.
Photo: (NBC via Mic)