Football players defend special-needs student from bullying (+video)

QUEENS CREEK, Ariz. —' Despite attending the same high school in Queens Creek, Ariz., Carson Jones and Chy Johnson seemed to be worlds apart.

Jones was a senior, the star quarterback of his high school's football team and a 4.0 student. In short, Jones and his friends were at the top of the high school hierarchy.

Johnson, on the other hand, suffers from a brain disorder and was often bullied by girls at her school. She told azfamily.com, "The girl threw trash at me."

Johnson's mother had had enough and called Jones, a family friend, to learn the names of students bullying her daughter.

But Jones and his friends took it one step further. Jones began eating lunch with Johnson everyday. Other football players would follow her throughout the day to make sure no one bullied her.

"They're not bullying her anymore because they've seen her with us or something," Jones said.

Johnson has taken to calling the players "my boys."

"They're not mean to me because all my boys love me so much," Johnson said.

Tucker Workman, one of the other football players, told AZ Family that Johnson hasn't been the only one to benefit from the new friendship.

"It feels good to know that we helped someone else because, you know, we're doing good, everything for us is going well, but someone else needs to feel good, too," Workman said.

Email: kharmer@deseretnews.com Twitter: @harmerk