Spiderman took a quick break from fighting crime Friday and stepped into the halls of East Side Elementary School.   

“Whenever I was little and I saw Spiderman come in and that made me really excited. To come in today and help the kids is really a privilege and really makes me feel like a hero to these kids,” said Spiderman Malachi Kennedy.

It’s all part of the Greater Johnstown School District’s “Hero Day”, which encourages students to be each others’ heroes through kindness and respect.

“It sends a message to everyone to create awareness for anti-bullying and that we’re all here to support one another. And that we’re here to build each other up, not put each other down,” said Tom Smith, Assistant Principal at Greater Johnstown High School.

Thursday, the district’s elementary schools were awarded a statewide ‘banner’ status for their School-wide Positive Behavior Program.

Melana Simms is the guidance counselor at East Side Elementary School. She said the program has a noticeable impact on how the students behave and relate to one another.

“When a child or children come in and they’re having a disagreement, a lot of the times we’ll ask them, ‘Hey, is this what a hero looks like? Is this what ROCK stands for?’ And we talk about these things,” said Simms.

The younger students aren’t the only ones who get excited about “Hero Day.” High school students join in the fun.

“I think that student starts to feel like a superhero himself,” said Smith. “But you don’t get that just from wearing that uniform. You get that from the little things you do to help other people in life. and you don’t have to wear a mask and you don’t have to wear a superhero to do it. You can do it without those things, but I think this piece of it helps bring that to life with the kids.”

“It was really good being their hero: Spiderman, the man who can climb walls, shoot webs. I was that man for a good 5-10 minutes. It was the best feeling I ever had,” said Kennedy.