He won homecoming king, then shared the crown with his friend

Homecoming king is one of the least useful titles a person can hold, and at seventeen it can feel like the most important one in the world. On Friday, October 16, at a pep rally at Mahanoy Area High School in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, it went to a boy who shared it. A video from the local outlet Skook News went around the internet, and by October 20 the hometown paper and TODAY.com had the rest of the story.

There were two nominees for king. One was Keny Cedanio Ramirez, 17, who plans to become an electrician and, later, a therapist. The other was his friend Axton Kuhla, 17, who has Down syndrome. For years Axton had looked forward to senior year, to homecoming, and most of all to the chance to be king. Keny had already made up his mind: if he won, Axton would share it.

He won. The gym was packed for the pep rally, and all that attention had become too much for Axton. Keny says the rest is a blur, but he remembers hearing his name, seeing the disappointment on his friend's face, and giving him a hug. Then he shared the crown and the sash, and in the video Axton begins to cry. "He'll talk about it forever," said Axton's mother, Alyssa Shellhamer.

It would be easy to file this under nice kid helps disabled kid, and Keny won't have it. "I try not to treat nobody like they're less than me," he told TODAY, "because nobody, nobody, is above or less than me."

Charity reaches down from above, and he's telling you there is no above.

The Bible's oldest version of this scene has a prince in it. Jonathan was King Saul's son and heir, and David was a shepherd boy who had just come back from killing Goliath. The day they became friends, Jonathan took off his own robe and gave it to David, with his sword, his bow and, a homecoming court will appreciate this, his sash. The one who outranked his friend handed him the rank. Saul worked out what that meant later, once his jealousy of David had grown, and he said it out loud to his son.

1 Samuel 20:31For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!"

Saul could only picture the crown on one head. Jonathan had already handed over his robe, and he kept choosing his friend anyway. Keny says that seeing Axton smile made him forget all his nerves. He held the thing Axton had wanted for years, and he decided ahead of time that he'd rather stand next to his friend than above him.