School can be scary when you’re only three years old.
You have to follow a bunch of rules, and learn a bunch of things, and meet a bunch of people who may or may not be nice to you.
Three-year-old Lydia has been having a tough time adjusting to her preschool class in Spring Hill, Fla., according to her mother, Erica Calculli.
She says kids have been bullying Lydia at school all summer, and the problem has only been getting worse. Lydia often comes home with tears in her eyes, and she’s started acting uncharacteristically violent at home.
Matters reached a breaking point in late August when the little girl left school with a bruised eye.
“She told me that a bunch of girls and one boy hit her and a girl threw a shoe at her eye,” Calculli told local news station WTSP on Friday.
Calculli reported the incident to Lydia’s teachers, but she says they didn’t do enough to address the injustice. So Calculli reached out to someone who is obsessed with justice. She called the Dark Knight.
Local Batman impersonator Jack Asbury says he felt moved by Lydia’s story, so he donned his cape and cowl and accompanied her to school on Aug. 28.
Photos posted on Facebook show the Caped Crusader walking his young ward to daycare, in a heartwarming gesture that has been shared widely on social media.
“Lydia got a surprise visit at school from The Batman of Spring Hill,” Calculli wrote on Facebook. “I really hope she’s more comfortable at school now, and I can’t wait to talk to her when she gets home.”
Asbury explained why he wanted to help the little girl in a separate Facebook post.
“I made a new friend today. This is Lydia,” he wrote on his Batman-focused Facebook page.
“She was being bullied at school … to the point she didn’t want to go,” Asbury wrote. “So I reached out and asked her if I could walk her to school.
“Hopefully this will help her overcome the fear knowing who has her back.”
Asbury told the class that he was Lydia’s best friend and that he’d be back to check on her later.
Calculli says Asbury’s visit made a world of difference for her daughter.
“She didn’t even know what to say. She was a little shy to get out of the car,” Calculli told WTSP. “It was adorable.”
Asbury also gave Lydia a Supergirl outfit with a glittering crest on the front so she could be his “sidekick” in the fight against bullies.
Calculli thanked Asbury for helping her daughter on Facebook. She also sent him a message (which he later posted) to inform him that his visit helped Lydia make a friend.
“A little boy came to Lydia as soon as we walked into school this morning and said, ‘Hi best friend Lydia,’ took her hand, and walked her to class,” Calculli wrote. “Seriously made me cry. Thank you so much for being there for my baby.”
It was all in a day’s work for Asbury, a paramedic by day who moonlights as the Batman to cheer kids up at hospitals and other community events.
Calculli says the school moved Lydia to an advanced learning class and she’s doing much better now.
“I’m really hoping that a new classroom and having Batman by her side can change the outcome altogether,” Calculli said. “Batman really saved the day!”