With recent headlines like those out of Jena High School in Louisiana, some educators are looking for ways to break down barriers and bring children together.

Many schools are organizing "Challenge Days" to do just that.

Monday at Augusta Christian High School, students and teachers put their twist on this popular activity and called it "Jericho Day."

“We all deal with the same problems, but we all walk around feeling very isolated,” Carolyn Giddens, Augusta Christian High School principal, said.

“Step across the line if you've ever been made fun of or hurt by a teacher in our school,” Coach Keith Walton said during the “Step Across the Line” activity.

In the activity, students walked from one end of the gym to the other to show which situations applied to their lives. If it did, Coach Walton offered words of encouragement and asked the students to take a deep breath and leave those negative experiences behind before returning to the other side of the room.

Jericho Day brought students and teachers together by taking them out of their comfort zones.

They broke down barriers by sharing their thoughts and feelings in small groups with people they didn't normally talk to or maybe didn’t know at all.

“We wrote down all the labels we have at our school or any school, like "the popular kids" or "the rich kids" and we just really broke them down and talked about how that hurts us,” Orrealus Harris, Jr., a senior, said.

Teachers got the idea from Challenge Day.org, but incorporated the spiritual aspect of their school into the day-long activity.

“If public schools can do these types of activities and be successful, we certainly can because we have the answer which is the gospel,” Principal Giddens said.

Students say they can already feel the difference from this day, which will eventually impact their community and ultimately, the world.

“I think pretty much anybody in this country can benefit from getting to know people you don't know because you'll never know it could turn out to be your best friend,” Senior Zack Herzwurm said.

“It can start with one school, one student, one group and I think Augusta Christian is going to be the one,” Harris said.

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