High school can be a tough time for many students. But a program is coming to Merritt Secondary School that aims to help ease some of that tension by making high school a comfortable and safe place.

Breaking Down the Walls is a program that help students and teachers connect in an open dialogue over the course of four days, three of which are full-day workshops.

Leadership teacher Shannon Dunn said it can be a powerful and even emotional experience for students and teachers opening up about themselves and taking a hard look at how they interact with those around them.

“The students come back, and our school is changed,” she said. “You see a lot more people smiling at each other in the hallways, a lot less of the ‘drama.’ It just seems like a happier, more accepting, more unified school.”

While the program isn’t billed as an anti-bullying one, that can be one of its direct effects, Dunn said.

“It’s so much more. Depending on what your school needs, it can be a leadership program, it can be an anti-bullying program, there’s just more to it,” she said.

Breaking Down the Walls is built on the principle that understanding one another helps people think before they judge.

“This gives us the opportunity to really understand a person and that brings out your compassion,” she said.

On the first day, Feb. 17, the entire student body gets the program’s message at an assembly presented by the facilitator. After that, about 50 students who were selected by school staff are trained by the speaker to act as facilitators over the following three days. From Tuesday to Thursday, groups of 150 students, about 20 facilitators and teachers, counsellors and support staff take part in full-day workshops at the Civic Centre where they split into smaller groups for more intensive activities.

One of those activities is called Crossing the Line, in which the facilitator asks students a series of questions, and those who answer yes step forward. This way, they can see the others who are like them – and some of the similarities might surprise them, Dunn said.

“It can be shocking, it can be very sad to watch what people think of themselves or the situations that they’re going through,” Dunn said, adding even close friends can be shocked at what they learn about one another.

Dunn said the program is valuable for Merritt students because MSS brings together people from all areas of town and from a wide array of socio-economic backgrounds.

Over the course of the week, the students, who barely knew each other at the beginning, play various games intended to get them comfortable and start seeing the things they have in common with those whom they might not have thought.

The program is presented by California-based motivational speaker and consulting company Learning for Living and was devised by the company’s founder, Phil Boyte, who’s renowned on the speaker circuit.

Boyte has presented the program in schools around North America, and has facilitated the program at MSS twice. This year, however, students will have a new facilitator from the Breaking Down the Walls team.

Dunn came to know of the program because her leadership class has had a Link Crew (senior students who help ease freshmen’s transition to high school) and first fundraised to bring it to Merritt six years ago.

The plan was to host it every two years because the program doesn’t come cheap.

It costs $11,000 this year, including the speaker’s flights, and was entirely fundraised. Some of the funds came from leadership students, who held dances and volunteered at local Rotary club events, while some was contributed by the MSS parent advisory council, which will be buying lunch for each student in the program.

Teachers also participate in the program, and Dunn said it’s equally beneficial for them.

As an example, instead of reacting angrily to a student who fails to bring in finished homework, a teacher might consider the circumstances affecting that student’s ability to finish homework. It could be bullying, home life or any number of things, she said.

“We believe if you’re not looking after the heart, you can’t train the brain,” she said.

Students must apply to participate in the program.

“Students have to want to attend it. They actually apply to attend it. Nobody’s really turned down, but we need them to go through that buy-in process,” she said.

Students can be recommended by teachers, counsellors and parents.

Dunn said the effects of taking the program can be profound – though it takes some work to sustain them.

“Maybe students who are strong leaders within their groups could be that voice that helps us to change,” Dunn said.