Salinas Schools Teach Their City the Path of Peace

In classrooms and on playgrounds across Salinas, peculiar things are taking place.

Schoolyard bullies befriend children they once intimidated. Students who used to quarrel flash peace signs at one another. And children once known for unruly, disruptive behavior now walk between classes with hands clasped calmly behind their backs.

Educators say that the changes are the payoff of PeaceBuilders, a program designed to teach children positive behavior and skills for coping with conflict.

Created by a child psychologist in Tucson, PeaceBuilders has spread to 500 schools nationwide since its debut in 1992. In Southern California, the program has been adopted by districts in Paramount, Riverside, San Bernardino and several other cities.

But nowhere has PeaceBuilders been embraced with as much gusto as in Salinas, a city of 122,000 best known as the birthplace of author John Steinbeck.

Wedged among the famously fertile lettuce fields of Monterey County, Salinas has pushed the idea of building peace beyond the classroom into workplaces, churches, government offices and homes.

“Salinas is a remarkable model of what can be done,” said psychologist Dennis Embry, creator of the PeaceBuilders concept. “They have committed themselves to this in a powerful way.”

Civic leaders say that they had no choice. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, violent crime turned what had been a quiet farm town into a frightening place, seemingly overnight. In 1994, warfare among more than 20 resident gangs helped push the yearly homicide total to a record high of 24 (down to 18 this year; rape, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary are down as well). That same year, a crossing guard was shot while escorting a mother and toddler across the street. The next day, children had to step around bloodstains while walking to school.

Alarmed, the people of Salinas began attacking the violence problem on multiple fronts. One of their more creative solutions was PeaceBuilders, a remarkably simple program that, boosters say, works because it has a positive focus--rather than a strictly punitive one--and aims to prevent antisocial behavior before bad habits take hold.

Four years after its introduction here, homicide and other crimes are down and, while Salinas is hardly violence-free, residents say that a culture of calm has settled in.

“Five years ago, we felt the situation was hopeless, that violence was inevitable and we were powerless,” says Lupe Garcia, the city’s PeaceBuilders coordinator. “No one feels that way anymore.”

A Basis in Old Wisdom

The real showplace of progress is the schools. After the program’s debut year here, an independent consultant found that disciplinary actions were down by 49%, serious violence episodes by 59% and absences by 31%. The most startling drop was in vandalism, which fell by 61%.

Teachers describe a palpable change in atmosphere, from one of anxiety to order and calm. And they say that the drop in discipline trouble has freed them to do what teachers are paid to do: teach.

“This used to be such a tense place--you could see it in the kids, the teachers,” said Cheryl Larison, an instructional coach at Alisal Elementary School. “Now there’s an atmosphere of learning. It’s totally changed.”

There is no magic or secret trick that makes PeaceBuilders work. Even its creators concede that the program is based on old wisdom, a sort of Golden Rule philosophy.

Guiding the program are four principles, which are included in a “PeaceBuilders pledge” recited weekly in most Salinas elementary schools, along with the pledge of allegiance:

* Praise people.

* Give up put-downs.

* Notice hurts and right wrongs.

* Seek wise people when problems arise.

Embry says that the heart of PeaceBuilders is creating an expectation of good behavior and continually reinforcing it with positive messages.

The program provides schools with lesson plans to help integrate the PeaceBuilders doctrine into the curriculum. History teachers, for example, might discuss how wars might have been prevented if world leaders had used better peace-building skills.

There are specific exercises as well. One requires students to write down all the nasty things they might be tempted to say about someone, then crumple the paper and toss it in the trash.

Another program staple is the use of “praise notes,” short messages that compliment another person for even the simplest of reasons. At first, students needed prompting. Now, they write the notes spontaneously and hang them on classroom “praise boards.” Teachers do likewise in the staff lounge.

At Alisal Elementary, a PeaceBuilders Club has 300 members who are admitted after completing an hourlong training session about what it means to be a PeaceBuilder. At recess, members mediate playground disputes and organize games for other children.

To have an impact, the PeaceBuilders program must amount to more than just a 10-minute dose of dogma per day. Teachers say that it must infiltrate all communication and conduct, on school grounds and beyond.

Toward that end, Salinas police officers hand out “PeaceBuilder citations”--redeemable for a free video rental--to children they see exhibiting good behavior, such as helping a neighbor or using crosswalks.

And some teachers, like Laurie Singer, try to spread peace-building to homes by having students write praise notes to their parents.

“It’s tough if children practice peace-building at school, then go home to an environment of screaming and conflict,” said Singer, a teacher at Frank Paul Elementary. But when parents read a written compliment from a child, she says, “it can have a very powerful effect.”

Singer also requires her students to write a “peace treaty” when they make a mistake--criticize another child, for example, or misbehave in some other way. The treaties include an admission of the wrong and an agreement to make restitution in some way.

One of PeaceBuilders’ biggest boosters is Bill Deeb, principal of Alisal Elementary. In the middle of the city’s roughest area, Alisal serves 950 students, most of them Spanish-speaking and many of them the children of migrant fieldworkers. The average annual income of Alisal families is $16,000.

Deeb, an energetic man with a graying beard, used to find his days consumed by discipline problems. PeaceBuilders has changed all that; suspensions and referrals to the office are way down.

On Deeb’s desk is a plastic jar filled with nominations for PeaceBuilder of the week. At a school assembly each Friday, he acknowledges winners and rewards them with Popsicles, suckers, chocolate coins or other prizes.

“I shake their hand, look them in the eye and praise them,” Deeb said. “And the child sees the principal not as a fearful figure, someone to avoid, but as someone who acknowledges their positive behavior and citizenship.”

While Deeb concedes that his students are “far from perfect,” he says that an episode earlier this year convinced him that many youngsters have taken PeaceBuilders to heart.

It started with the theft of some tricycles from a kindergarten class. At an assembly, Deeb asked students to help the school get them back. The stolen trikes did not reappear, but something better happened. Within two weeks, a sixth-grade class had raised enough money to buy a new tricycle.

“There was no prompting from teachers or staff,” Deeb said. “These kids just saw a wrong and wanted to make it right.”

Intrusions of Reality

Police Chief Dan Nelson is an optimist by nature; you can hear it in his voice. He believes the city’s efforts against violence are making Salinas a safer place.

But reality keeps intruding. Earlier this month, just days after the city concluded its annual PeaceBuilder Summit and celebration, two senior citizens were shot during robberies in two of the safer areas of town.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Nelson said. “It’s discouraging.”

Like many California cities, Salinas has grown by leaps and bounds and now suffers many of the ills plaguing larger urban centers. Although crime is down overall, gangs still thrive and sensational shootings still occur.

But when Nelson mingles with Salinas’ youngest generation, children who have been exposed to PeaceBuilders for four years, his hopes soar. During his classroom talks on drug abuse, he says, the children are attentive, polite, responsive.

“It’s a big change in behavior,” the chief says. “There’s a focus on learning.”

It is too early to know whether those children--reared on a PeaceBuilders diet--will forswear violence forever. Results from a long-term study of the program in Arizona schools, funded by the national Centers for Disease Control, are not yet in.

In any case, Nelson and others are well aware that one program can only do so much--and has little effect on hard-core gang members whose way of life is already set. They also know the fight against violence is a marathon.

“This is not about quick gratification,” Nelson said. “If this program does nothing more than let kids get an education and a jump-start on life, then it will be a success.”