Restrooms are a place of necessity. At a school in Arlington, the restrooms take on added significance.
The stalls in the fifth grade wing at Mary Moore Elementary School are places of inspiration.
Parents spent a weekend power cleaning the doors, sanding them and painting them black. Then, the magic happened.
The parents added motivational quotes, like "Bloom where you are planted" and "Kindness changes everything" to every door on every stall in the fifth grade restrooms. The transformation happened over a weekend, so students didn't see the change until Monday morning.
"They didn't know it was happening," said principal Tyson Jones. "They were blown away and have taken such ownership of it by showing it off to other students."
Tyson said all the students in his Pre-K through sixth grade school will soon see the stalls of inspiration. Best Team Pneumatics, a company owned by the grandparents of a Mary Moore student, donated $1,500 to pay for paint that will cover all the stalls in every student restroom in the building. Parents will again volunteer their time to paint and inspire.
Tyson said it goes right along with his message to students this year to slow down and find joy in the school day.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"Public school has become pretty tedious," Tyson told NBC's "Today" contributor Allison Slate Tate. "The children are being tested to death, the teachers are overworked. We decided we wanted to hit the brakes on everything this year - still working on things like getting scores up, sure, but going out of our way to look for joy, for the positive instead of the negative."
The positive power can be now be found in the potty at Mary Moore. It shouldn't be surprising if students start asking for restroom passes more often.
