by KYW's Suzanne Monaghan

There's a public school in Philadelphia that's dedicated to teaching its students the value of peace over violence, both locally and globally. 

Walk through the door and within minutes you'll see that Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice is not your typical school.  Just ask sophomore Joel Leek:

"I describe the school of being a community, because all of us in this building are under a common unity of peace." 

Peace coordinator Laura Richlin says that concept is fairly new -- the school added peace and social justice to the curriculum two years ago:
 
"The idea being that through studies to alternatives to violence and through building leadership and communication skills that we could help teach students alternatives." 
 
Those alternatives are taught to the 280 students through activities that incorporate critical thinking, problem solving, cooperative learning, and research.

"There isn't a child in this school who hasn't been affected by violence personally, and many of them have been affected over and over again." 
In fact, Parkway lost one of their own students to violence this past summer. 

For sophomore Ashley Stanley Hopson, the murder was a turning point:

"It really changed my state of mind about the peace, and I went from 'Another day of peace' to 'What are we going to learn new today about peace and what can we do make a difference, what can we do to stop the violence?' " 

And it's not just talk -- these students take action.