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Youth Making Some Noise!





The CRT gets C-U-T
Author: Alvaro Martinez





Recently I had a family crisis in my life and needed 
to talk to someone. I knew I could talk to a counselor 
of the Conflict Resolution Team at Watsonville High, 
but when I went there, I found out the program was cut 
because there wasn’t enough money in the budget.
The C.R.T. was a group of students, called mediators, 
who helped students solve their problems. Anyone who 
was having problems could set up an appointment for a 
one-on-one session.
I found out about C.R.T. when I was a freshman. I had 
got in a fight with one of my best friends because he 
had said something about my family. I met with the 
coordinator at C.R.T. and she set up mediation between 
my best friend and me. We talked about the fight and 
agreed not to bring up family members when we argued. 
We decided to stay friends.
Before I became involved with the C.R.T. I was getting 
suspended all the time. The C.R.T helped me a lot over 
the years. After my first mediation, I went back three 
or four times to talk about the same things, but with 
other people. I was able to work out my problems with 
everyone.
Because the C.R.T. helped me so much I became involved 
my senior year. I was able to talk to several kids 
about how to avoid conflicts with others. Gina 
Castaneda ran the program for two years. 
“The C.R.T. was so important to stop the violence at 
the school,” Castaneda said. “The Pajaro Valley 
Prevention Student Association applied for a grant 
from the State to keep it going, but it 
didn’t get approved.”
So where should you go if you need to talk to someone? 
The Anger Management Office at Watsonville High offers 
counseling to the students who used to go to the 
C.R.T. for help. 
The C.R.T. helped me a lot with how to solve my anger 
problems and how not to fight with other people. I 
liked being a C.R.T. member because I could help other 
people with their own problems just like mine. 
Watsonville High school really needs the C.R.T. 
because of all the gang fighting they have. The gang 
population dropped when I was there. But when C.R.T. 
shut down a year ago, the gang problem got worse. 
The school and students need to get C.R.T. back at 
Watsonville High. It could help the school improve 
their population for the sake of the students of WHS. 
I think that the parents of the students would be 
happier with C.R.T. back at their children’s school.
To find more information about how we can bring back 
the C.R.T. to Watsonville High, go to www.pvpsa.org.