Atlanta-Area Students Take the Field For Special-Need Classmates

On football fields in metro Atlanta, students recently have been creating some special moments for some of their special classmates.

In each case, the high schoolers have agreed to give up a little limelight themselves to give students with disabilities a moment to remember.

At McEachern High School in Powder Springs, last Friday night was homecoming.

Halftime came, and senior Kyla Chang was announced as the homecoming queen. But without hesitating for a moment, Chang took her crown and bouquet and handed them to another member of the homecoming court — Tyersten Kimber.

Kimber is a special education student and captain of the "Mighty Indians" cheerleading squad. She was born at just under 26 weeks, weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces and spent more than a year in intensive care before coming home.

Apparently, the entire court had agreed that, whoever won, they were going to give the crown to Kimber because they all thought she deserved the title.

"As we anxiously awaited the crowning of queen, something beautiful happened," Krissy West, a speech language pathologist and one of the cheerleading coaches at McEachern, told WSB-TV.

Head south to Fayetteville, and another football field, for the story of Derek Baughan.

Baughan is a special-needs student at Whitewater High School and a member of the school's junior varsity football team.

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During the squad's last game of the year, his teammates hatched a plan to get him into the end zone for a touchdown. And they got the other team, Newnan High, to go along with it.

Handed the ball, Derek took off around the left end and, as defenders fell one by one, made his way in for a score.

Both teams met him in the end zone to celebrate.

"It makes me feel awesome," he said to WXIA-TV. "I have more honor -- I feel good about myself."

Speaking to the station, his coach gave credit to Derek's teammates.

"It's very humbling and heartwarming to see our kids rally behind him because they generated that themselves," said Coach Bryan Holley. "That's all from them."