As students head back to class at J.L. Long Middle School on Monday, they will find something that looks different.
Some of the bathroom stalls inside the school have been painted with positive, encouraging messages.
Phrases like, "Stand up for others even if you're standing alone" and ,"She believed she could, so she did" are now painted on the once plain stalls.
Sharon Bridges, a mother with children at the middle school in East Dallas, decided to decorate the stalls with inspiring messages after she saw another school do something similar on social media.
"This is a place that some kids go to hide… and this might remind them that we see you, we love you… step back out there with your head held high," Bridges said.
Other parents, teachers and staff from Dallas ISD were immediately on board with the idea, and helped donate supplies and money.
They spent the past three weeks transforming the bathrooms before the first day of school.
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Bridges' daughter, Molly, will start her first day of sixth grade at the school on Monday.
"It was important to me that they are reminded as often as possible how important and smart they are," Bridges said.
Molly and some of her classmates checked out the bathrooms ahead of the first day of class.
"I thought that it was beautiful," Molly said.
Bridges said their bathroom designs have already caught the attention of other schools from around the district and even across the country.
"I think that it will catch on," she said.
Bridges said they plan to decorate the locker rooms next with inspiring messages. They then hope to do the same thing at Woodrow Wilson High School next door.
