> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # John Adams Middle School students break cliques with first 'Mix It Up' lunch - URL: https://www.smdp.com/geoffrey-dunn-news-smdp-com-making-new-friends-veronica-castro-director-of-the-girls-program-at-the-ywca-santa-monica-speaks-to-students-at-john-adams/ - Published: 2008-01-19T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T18:04:07.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Education, Sunset Park, #archive-import SUNSET PARK For at least 30 minutes, the students at John Adams Middle School (JAMS) didn’t carry any labels. There were no jocks, no popular girls or freaks and geeks. For one lunch period on Friday afternoon, the cliques disappeared and what remained were students, just students. JAMS and the YWCA Santa Monica/Westside co-sponsored the first “Mix It Up”lunch on Friday,an event where students were encouraged to break away from their normal group of friends for a short period of time to meet someone new, an attempt to break up cliques and unite the student body as one. “We want to do our best to desegregate our campus at lunch time,” said Assistant Principal Shirley Compton-Sugars. “Not that they are segregated by race, but they do stay with their friends and set group.” The event coincided with the national “Mix It Up” day in which more than four million students in 10,000 schools participated last year, addressing the issue of racism in schools across the country, the event occurring days before the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Each of the more than 1,000 students at JAMS received a piece of color construction paper before lunch time began. They were instructed to sit at a picnic table where the color of the balloons tied to it matched the color of the construction paper. The students were not allowed to trade colors with other students. “We’re trying to get students to realize there still is segregation in schools; that there are social boundaries, ” said Veronica Castro, the director of the girls programs at the YWCA.“Some students feel they can’t sit (in a certain place) because they’re not cool enough or because they’re too scared.” Cliques are prevalent on the JAMS campus, said Messiah Bailey,a seventh grader and member of the YWCA’s Girls in Action Program, which helped organize the special lunch. “We want to make things less segregated and more integrated,” Bailey said. During lunch time, it’s not an uncommon sight to see a student eating lunch by themselves, said Principal Martha Shaw. Shaw mentioned that earlier in the school year, students learned about an organization called “Rachel’s Challenge,” centered around Rachel Scott, the first student who was killed in the Columbine High School shootings in 1999\. Scott was known as a friend to the friendless, Shaw said. “This (event) seemed like a good way to talk to them about how it’s just one day and they don’t have to be the person’s best friend, but to think of what it would be like if they were alone,” Shaw said. “(Lunch) time is a time when people are so social, it’s a painful time to not have friends.” Once the clock struck 12:50 p.m. on Friday afternoon, the students streamed out of the classrooms and onto the quad, lunch bags in one hand and a colorful piece of construction paper in the other, some looking confused as to their seating arrangements, others relieved that there was at least one familiar face in their color coded group, some appearing awkward sitting at a table where they didn’t know anybody. “Remember, don’t trade any of your colors,” Castro yelled into the microphone. El Alseth, a sixth grader and new kid on the block, met about three new people about 10 minutes into the lunch period, eating a slice of pizza and having a conversation with seventh grader Mary Berrett, who has a class with the new student’s older sister. “It’s actually a lot of fun,” Alseth said, taking a bite of his pizza. Just a few feet away at the blue table, Kourtney Murphy, an eighth grader, was getting to know four unfamiliar faces. While it was a bit awkward sitting with people she didn’t know, Murphy said she thought “Mix it Up” would yield positive results. “It’s cool to get to know new people and I can meet other new people through my friends,” Murphy said. School officials hope to make “Mix It Up” an annual event. Castro said she plans to introduce the concept to other schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. It’s important to hold events like “Mix It Up”at middle schools where the students are undergoing changes in their lives, becoming more independent and forming an idea of who they want to become, Castro said. “At this age, they begin to develop their world view and start to analyze who they are, yet they are still open to ideas,” Castro said. “An event like ‘Mix It Up’ will influence how they see the world and will offer the unique opportunity for them to fight the barriers of segregation and racism at their school in a positive and fun way.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 19, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)