Special homecoming for Bullard High School

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Students and teachers at Bullard High School are calling it a homecoming they will never forget.

On Friday night crowds gathered to watch the crowning of this year's homecoming king and queen.

Charlie Allshouse knows a thing or two about a solid celebration.

Bullard High School voted Charlie the king on campus on Friday night.

"Homecoming king can kind of be a popularity contest and Charlie is very popular," Charlie's teacher Patrick Gerrits said.

The 17-year-old has Down Syndrome and while communicating is a challenge, enthusiasm is where he excels.

His mom Denise says that image of her son wearing a crown surrounded by his classmates is a moment she will always remember.

"The entire student body and everybody in that stadium was shouting his name and everybody was clapping. It was an amazing feeling," Denise Allshouse, Charlie's mother, said.

And perhaps even more amazing is that the students here also voted another exceptional teenager to be Bullard's homecoming queen.

Shaela Warkentin was critically injured and blinded in a car accident last March after a drunk driver rammed into the car she and her sister were in.

Learning to live without sight has been tough but game day cheers eased some of her struggles.

"It felt really good. I felt royal and pretty and a princess and I was a queen!" Warkentin said. "It made me feel like I did have a point or I did have a purpose here and other people cared about me enough to vote for me."

Homecoming is a rite of passage for many teenagers but for this entire community it may rank as one of their most memorable nights under the Friday night lights.

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