Every girl in the Lakes Magnet Middle School gym raised her hand Tuesday when the group was asked if they’ve ever been bullied. The hands stayed up when the girls were asked if they’ve ever bullied anyone.

It was all part of the Kindness Campaign, an effort to reduce bullying.

The girls and boys parted ways to learn about being kind and having character.

“When the whole staff gets together and takes the time to talk about these issues and recognize them, it validates the students and what they are feeling,” said Jenny Nelson, the teacher who brought the Kindness Campaign to the school’s attention.

The girls watched the film “Finding Kind,” which follows two women around the country as they explore female relationships and girl-on-girl “crime.” A major part of the movie is that everyone can choose to be kind.

The boys listened to a presentation by former Lakes Middle School student Noah Couser. He spoke about character, how to build it and what it means to be character strong.

Nelson experienced the Kindness Campaign previously in two schools where she worked, in Washington and Rathdrum, and had been looking for a way to bring it to Lakes.

One day last year, Nelson was walking up to the second floor when she heard a fight about to break out. The drama was over a boy and a group of girls had cornered another girl. When the students saw her coming up the stairs, many fled the scene and only two girls remained, in tears.

“That’s when I knew I had to bring the Kindness Campaign here,” Nelson said. “It’s a message every girl needs to hear.”

After the video and presentation Tuesday, students got into smaller groups to talk about what they learned and how they can incorporate it into their lives.

“Even if you did make mistakes, you can still apologize and strive to do better as a person and show you’ve learned from that mistake you made,” one girl said.

Another girl said she was struck by the fact that “when asked who made a mistake, everyone raised their hand. Everyone has been bullied and has bullied someone else.”

Carlee Lingard, a seventh-grader at Lakes, spoke to The Press about how she sees a lot of back-stabbing among her peers.

“My friend group is really good with everyone,” she said. “Sometimes we do spread drama, though, and you do feel bad after it, but that’s going to change now.”

Over on the boys side, teachers spoke with students about what part of their character they want to improve upon and what character traits they admire in others.

Brian Buckholtz, a seventh-grader, said the presentation inspired him to persevere through school and to not put as much blame on himself if his soccer team loses a game.

“We learned how to persevere and how to be kind to people even if we don’t want to,” he said.

Roy Carlson, a gym teacher at the school and one of the group leaders, said he really liked the presentation and how it reminded the kids to have courage to do the right thing. He also said the presentation showed the boys they have teachers and adults who are there to help them.

The Kindness Campaign ended with each student filling out three cards. The first was a note to another person saying something kind. The second note was an apology to someone the kids may have hurt or been mean to. The last card was a kindness/character pledge, where the kids wrote down an action they are willing to take to be kind, or to be a person of character.

Each kid got to choose whether to deliver the cards or keep them.

“It feels a little tumultuous right now, because old stuff is coming up, but the general tone of the school will be more positive,” Nelson said. “This process is so healing.”