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Paralyzed prom queen gives crown to special needs student

Kendra Muller, of Riverton, Utah, gave her crown and sash to special needs student Amanda Belnap.

On Saturday, March 15, Kendra Muller, 16, was crowned Riverton High School's 2014 prom queen at the junior class prom.

Three days later, the Utah teen gave up the crown.

On Wednesday, Kendra, who was paralyzed in an accident almost three years ago and uses a wheelchair, handed her sash, tiara and title to the "first attendant," or first runner-up: Amanda Belnap, a special needs student.

"Kendra came into Amanda's class and, in front of her peers and the teachers, said, 'I thought that Amanda really deserves this honour,'" Riverton High Principal Carolyn Gough told Good Morning America. "It's just absolutely one of the neatest things that I could ever imagine."

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She added that Amanda had been wearing a "grin from ear to ear" ever since — and intended to wear the crown all week.

"I was really happy," Amanda told ABC 4 Utah. "And she gave me a cute note and it was really good inside."

Kendra and Amanda had never interacted before the prom, Gough said. Kendra told the principal she parted with the crown because "it was the right thing to do."

"I was really honoured to get prom queen and I was really happy about it, but I felt that Amanda would be even more happy and more excited to get it," Kendra told FOX 13 News.

"I know her well enough to know that she spreads joy everywhere she goes, and she’s an amazing person, and I know that she would pass it forward," she added.

"The thing that is so remarkable about our school in general is that we're oblivious to disabilities," Gough said of her 2,050-student school. "Students are very generous to other students in the school, seeking out ways to help and to serve."

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"How can you see this as anything else but just the most generous character in a student, especially for a student who genuinely deserved it herself," Gough said. "This is just a bright spot for me."

Amanda's mother, Mellani Belnap, agreed.

"I was just shocked, I couldn't believe it, it's just such a selfless act for someone that's a junior in high school to do something like that, she's beyond her years," she said.

Kenda insisted it wasn't a difficult decision to give Amanda the crown:

"If it's in my power to make someone happy — then why not make someone happy?"