Racially diverse high school in St Louis leads the way in tackling race issues in the area

Just a few miles from Ferguson, a special program at Maplewood-Richmond Heights High gives students the tools to talk about the fallout from the Michael Brown case.

Not far from Ferguson, Missouri and the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer, high school students have been holding tough conversations about race.

It's part of a special program at Maplewood-Richmond Heights High in Maplewood, Missouri -- one of the most racially diverse schools in the area. The school is 47% white, 40% black, and about 4% Hispanic.

The program, called Student Group on Race Relations, began months before Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson. In April of this year, Maplewood-Richmond Heights High Principal Kevin Grawer visited a high school in Shaker Heights, Ohio with a similar racial makeup. He was invited to sit in on a small student-run race-relations meeting, and was inspired to give students at his school a safe place to talk race too.

Principal Grawer now supervises SGORR at his high school. In meetings held before first period, he takes a seat in the back and lets students take the reigns, exploring how to talk with each other about race and how it impacts their lives -- respectfully.

Grawer joined Take Two, along with 12th grader Jazmen Bell, who participates in the program. They both agreed that SGORR helped prepare students for the fallout from the Ferguson case in their community by giving students the tools to discuss the case in a constructive way.

Bell told Take Two her fellow students have definitely been talking about the shooting of Michael Brown, "and sometimes those conversations get one sided. So bringing those kinds of conversations into meetings creates an opportunity to see both sides of the issue," she said, "and a safe place to express those sides."

One of the group's helpful communication tools, or 'norms' as they call them, is the 'Oops' statement. When a group member takes offense to something someone says, they can call 'Oops' on the speaker. The group then takes a pause and the speaker "realigns the thought."

Grawer is impressed by the maturity of his students and how well they stick to their set 'norms'. "I don't know if adults could do it this well," he said.