Here's What Happened When Selena Gomez Casually Popped In at Her Old Texas Middle School

Courtesy of Mansfield ISD
Selena Gomez visits her former school.
Imagine going to school one day and hearing Selena Gomez over the intercom. That’s what happened to the students of Danny Jones Middle School in Mansfield, Texas, on Monday, when the singer/actress made a surprise visit to her alma mater.

She’s filming a documentary about her childhood memories, according to the Mansfield Independent School District’s blog post from Tuesday. The 27-year-old star felt it was important to show her best friend Courtney and people from her Interscope Records label “where I grew up and how proud I am of where I’m from,” she said in the short clip of her homecoming.

Her former teachers and coaches helped Gomez reconnect to her roots by describing her character as a middle schooler. Stephani Gray, her former coach, called Gomez a “kind, soft spirit. Hard, hard worker. Real humble. Just a really neat kid.”

Selena Gomez attends the opening ceremony and screening of "The Dead Don't Die" during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2019 in Cannes, France.
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And when that “hard worker” came into Gray’s office on her last day at Danny Jones Middle School, the goodbye shocked her. “I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And she said, ‘Oh, I’m just going to be in a little Disney film.’ And I said, ‘Oh, OK,’” Gray recalled. “Because sometimes middle school kids kind of exaggerate.”

But with Gomez, her skyrocketing career as a superstar wasn’t as simple as she initially made it out to her old coach, who was thrilled to see her name in the movie’s credits. What the “Kill Em With Kindness” songstress did want to exaggerate to the kids at her old school was showing kindness to everyone around them -- especially those who eat lunch by themselves, like she once did.

“Be kind to someone. If you see them eating alone like I did when I was here, just to say hi and just encourage them in their schoolwork and know that anything is possible for them,” she advised.

Check out her sweet hometown surprise below.