All they are saying is, "give peace a chance."

OK, more specifically: Give art a chance to convince you peace is possible.

Promoting peace through art is at the core of what the Wareham Middle School Peace Team does.  The group of seventh graders, who were recruited for the team at the beginning of the school year by school psychologist Kathy Lyons, work on art projects that send a message: Bullying is not alright, and the halls of the middle school should be a safe place for all.

"We work on art projects and we talk about ideas for spreading peace," said Lyons. "Some students are super peace-builders and some need to work on it."

The students on the Peace Team noted that pretty much anything and everything is fair game for kids these days to pick on one another about.

"You get judged on what shoes you wear," said Raven Jones.

Joesephine "Jojo" Jones added: "I saw people get bullied outside of school" about things like their height, or what their parents do.

Lyons said that the group has become more cohesive as the year has gone on, and she hopes that they carry the skills they learned into eighth grade and beyond.

"Really, what inspired me to get this started is I had some kids who were needy in terms of developing social skills," said Lyons.

Developing social skills to deal with the daily grind of school can be as important as any subject in the curriculum: How can a student focus on a math or English test when he or she is overly concerned with the type of social interaction that is effortless for many students?

This is the team's second year in existence, and Lyons says that she hopes the same trend she saw in the team last year will continue: "What I noticed is a lot of them stayed friends."

Peace Team member Leah Higgins shared her experiences with bullying.

"I don't like [bullying] because my friends get bullied," said Higgins. "I think [the Peace Team] helps because people will see what we do" and understand that their actions can hurt others.