After being shot in head, class president surprises classmates at graduation

On April 6, high school senior Balaal Hollings tried to break up a fight at a friend's birthday party.

Hollings, an honour student and senior class president at Northwestern High School in Detroit, was shot in the head.

According to ABC News, the bullet entered 18-year-old Hollings' temporal lobe. He was hospitalized for two weeks before moving to a rehab facility.

Hollings didn't return to school following the near-deadly incident. He did, however, orchestrate a huge surprise for his concerned classmates: he walked across the stage at their graduation.

"They don't know I'm coming," Hollings told WXYZ outside the Millenium Centre in Southfield, Michigan, before the ceremony. "They think I'm dilapidated."

Hollings, who had been homecoming king, had enough credits to graduate with his class.

Watch Hollings' classmates moving response to seeing their friend below.

"I just want to thank God. It is so good to be alive," Hollings said at graduation. "I got shot in the head, and I am fully rehabilitated."

Now fully released from the hospital, Hollings will still attend outpatient therapy, working on his strength and conditioning.

Hollings plans to study criminal justice or law at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, starting in January.