One of the mottos of Mary Louise Romero's restorative justice class at Santa Fe High School is, "You may be just one person to the world, but you are the world to us."

Romero initiated the program eight years ago as an offshoot of her state job as program manager of the Intensive Community Monitoring Program, which provides services to juveniles who are awaiting disposition in Children's Court.

In her restorative justice class, students seek alternative disciplinary measures via conflict resolution and taking responsibility for their actions. The course is like an open house for the heart.

Her 15 students range from sophomores to seniors. Five of them started out as referrals to the class — meaning they first got into some sort of trouble for a code of conduct infraction such as fighting or bullying or truancy.

"It's given me the chance to share my story and know that nobody here will judge me," said Santa Fe high senior Jazmin Muñoz of the class.

One of Romero's in-class exercises is "Who will share this with me?" an on-your-feet, musical-chairs activity in which one student stands in the middle of a circle of people and asks who in the group is feeling similar emotions regarding loss, happiness, love, heartbreak, being misunderstood, being alive and so on.

Friday morning's exercise was followed by a debriefing in which the students discussed what they had learned from the process. "It proves that people don't always show their emotions on the outside, but they feel on the inside," said sophomore Archie Poole.

These students are trained as advocates to implement restorative justice measures among their peers. They see fellow students from the school who may be referred by the police, juvenile probation officers, the school's principals, or other teachers.

Students can refer themselves as well, telling Romero and her class that they are in need of help due to a problem with truancy, bullying, racism or fighting.

Romero's teen advocates will pair up to help another student with a personal conflict They first find out what happened and then discuss what will likely happen once the referrals come to the restorative justice class.

There, the students get to face the person they are in conflict with — with the ultimate goal being forgiveness and reconciliation.

Senior Dylan Trujillo said he estimates the group has at least a 95 percent success rate with both resolving conflict and empowering other students to make a positive difference in the school community.

And the students have visited other schools (most recently Salazar Elementary School) to help with problems there and pass on knowledge and information about the restorative justice program. Santa Fe High School is not the only site with such a program, Romero stressed.

This elective class meets three times a week. "Here everybody has a voice, and everybody has a choice," said Romero — who is hard of hearing, so you should speak directly to her face when addressing her.

"Every one of our students needs a connection to a deeper place," she said. "Teachers get stuck on curriculum and testing, and they have little time to establish healthy relationships with the students."

Next year Romero wants to expand the program, taking it out of the school and into the community as a work-credit class in which students would perform outreach service where needed.

She said she's had communication and scheduling problems with Santa Fe High's administrative team regarding the program.

"The school hasn't embraced this program, but the students have," she said.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com