Program teaches students to steer clear of violence

Millstone Middle School Marches On program teaches crisis prevention through peer support.

By: Scott Morgan
   MILLSTONE — When it comes to keeping kids out of harm’s way, sometimes it’s better to let the kids sort things out on their own.
   "If they train each other, they’ll listen to each other," said Millstone Middle School sixth-grade teacher Kristin Hayes. "They don’t really listen to us."
   Of course, the kids need a little guidance too, which is why the middle school hosted Marches On for the third time on April 3. Marches On, an offshoot of a statewide school-based crisis prevention program named Peer to Peer, teaches kids to recognize, react and prevent school violence and bullying before revenge becomes a last resort. The program is overseen by advisers Audrey Ferraro, Heather Savard and Ms. Hayes herself.
   The stories are sobering, to say the least. There is the one that states bullies recognized as such by age 8 (that’s third grade) are five times more likely to have a criminal record by age 24. There is the one about Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold at Columbine High School, who did what they did because they’d been bullied. There is the one about a middle-school girl who lashed back at bullies by spreading rumors and was summarily beaten to death by them.
   "It’s just so scary," Ms. Hayes said. "It’s scary even as an adult. How does something like that even happen?"
   But then, the point behind Marches On is to keep questions like that off everyone’s lips. Through a series of skits and projects, Ms. Hayes said, eighth-grade mentors show their fifth- and sixth-grade counterparts the perils and promise of school violence.
   The program was developed by the Princeton Center for Leadership Training, which, according to Rachel Kyle, the organization’s assistant director, has been a feature player in more than 130 New Jersey middle schools since 1997. The original focus of the Peer to Peer program, Ms. Kyle said, was substance abuse awareness. Marches On adds different special components to the general emphasis, such as this year’s focus on violence awareness, though it incorporates some of the original lessons.
   "Tony," for example, was the kids’ first lesson last week. He was the star player on the basketball team, but got too hopped up on funny weed. And he would have been a wash-out if his friends hadn’t intervened. The next year, Tony and his teammates made the state finals.
   While it may sound a little simplistic, Ms. Hayes said, the performances work. The students, she said, "just shine," no doubt because of all the light bulbs Ms. Hayes said she’s witnessed popping on over the kids’ heads.
   Those light bulbs are encouraged to give off as much illumination as they receive. By teaching kids to relay ways to recognize trouble (not always easy when insults are couched in jokes), the information sticks in young brains, Ms. Hayes said.
   And the kids seem to be enjoying it.
   "The kids have a great time," Ms. Hayes said. "They really are natural leaders."
   And too, the kids, comprised of a broad range of types (not just athletes or unpopular kids or overachievers), often surprise the adult mentors who keep a careful, but out-of-the-way, eye on the proceedings.
   The things the students come up with, Ms. Kyle said, "are things that adults sometimes can’t come up with on their own."