Students 'mix it up' at school, make friends

They played like lifelong friends.

One wouldn’t guess that the three fifth-grade girls goofing around on the Christa McAuliffe Elementary School playground on Tuesday had met only a few minutes earlier.

But that was the idea of Mix It Up at Lunch Day, a national initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center that’s been embraced by several local schools.

The concept is simple: Eat lunch with kids you normally don’t and make a friend. Making friends outside your comfort zone, organizers hope, is a natural way to break down social barriers and create a culture of inclusion.

The results can be surprising.

“It was awesome, because I met this one and this one,” said Esperanza Martinez as she touched the heads of her two fast friends, Destiny Luckado and Alyssa Bravo.

McAuliffe school psychologist Jill Payne organized the day, and said it was a success.

“The kids are requesting that we do it again, because it’s fun. They seem to be getting the point of it, and know the idea is to make a new friend,” she said. “They’ve all done exceptionally well, even the younger kids.”

The students usually eat with their own class, but this day they received a shape and sat with the random bunch that received the same shape.

Not all kids were fans.

“It’s weird,” said fifth-grader Cheyenne Cuadros.

“Do we have to do a mixed-up recess too?” wondered fifth-grader Malachi Mills, who said he already has enough friends. But still he chatted as his new acquaintances discussed their favorite Mario Bros. characters — Yoshi was taken, so he went with Bowser.

“We should do it like once a month,” declared table mate Alissa Crain.

That’s exactly what happened at Falcon High School, said school counselor Greg Morris, where students celebrated Mix It Up day a year ago, and adopted it as a monthly event.

“Some kids hate it,” Morris said. “But I’ve gotten a lot of feedback behind closed doors that others like it. The main thing is they’re glad they had a way to mix it up without doing it on their own. They can use it as a guise, and they have the opportunity to meet somebody they really wanted to meet anyway.”