By Christina Burke
Staff Writer

Hundreds of teenage girls and their mothers poured into the Coppell Middle School West Auditorium on March 20 to find kindness and stand together against girl on girl bulling. The smell of popcorn wafted through the room as it filled with anticipation for a documentary said to be a revelation in girl world.

Finding Kind is a documentary presented by IndieFlix that strives to help girls set foot on common ground of kindness and respect for each other. It was directed, written and produced by two Pepperdine University students named Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson who set out on a cross-country venture to uncover just why it is that girls are so mean to each other.  The movement they created became known as the Kind Campaign, and has set out across the country to bring awareness to the cruelty of girl world.

This documentary caught the attention of Coppell Middle School West counselor Gretchen Pace when an announcement for it was sent out from her children’s school district.

“Finding Kind interested me as a middle school counselor, a previous high school counselor and a mother. My own 6-year-old is starting to go through this as well. In all the districts that I have been in, it has concerned me. I have seen too many hurt girls to not want to be able to do something about it,” Pace said. “The positive approach interested me. We have all been bullied and we have all been bullies. I liked the kind apologies and the healing pieces of the program.”

Through school announcements, emails and street signs, word of Finding Kind spread through Coppell. The thought of viewing this documentary intrigued many women to bring their daughters to this one of a kind learning experience. Pace was amazed at the turnout of the event as the auditorium continued to flood with females of all ages.

“The turnout was amazing. We were hoping for 100 people, and even that would have been fabulous. This far exceeded our expectations, and we were very excited,” Pace said.

Finding Kind is an overall hit with its viewers. It contains very relatable angles about girl on girl crime for everyone. Its powerful stories are very moving within the hearts viewers, and it generated eye-opening perspective within girl world. Parents, students and Coppell Independent School District employees were all able to take something out of it to promote finding kindness within their lives.

“The documentary was very good; I enjoyed all of it. I hope it reaches a lot of children. I wish more came, but I am very happy with the turnout,” parent Diane Onstott said. “Just listening to the bulling and remembering it, I was able to relate back to the meanness as it was 30 years ago when I was in school. Now I am more worried because of the technology and the cyber bullying.  It is a scary world.”

Fifth grader Peyton Storch heard about Finding Kind through her school, and chose to attend. She claims the documentary was worth watching and admitted that they could connect with the stories.

“I kind of connected with some of the people because I got bullied when I had just gotten to school,” Storch said. “If you do not have any thing nice to say, then do not say it at all.”

The genius factor behind Finding Kind was the ability to get people thinking about the meaningless things that girls to tear each other apart. The fact that something as big as the Kind Campaign sparked from the passion of two college girls is very inspiring.

“I thought Finding Kind was brilliant. I just love to see young people realize that they can change the world,” teen leadership teacher Nicky Fryman said. “It does not take doctors, lawyers or presidents to change the world, but just young people who have a passion for an idea and a fueling to share that with other people.”

Finding Kind was an eye-opening experience that does not need to be forgotten. It can really change the way girls in Coppell treat each other, and everyone should be exposed to the stories and emotion that result from the cattiness of girls whether they attended the documentary or not.

“I do not want it to be something that we pull in for one night and then put it away and never address it again. This is something that we need to show the girls; we have got to find a way to make this accessible to our kids in the future. Making a club like this at Coppell High School would be phenomenal.” Fryman said.