MURRIETA -- Any time a student problem crops up at Rail Ranch Elementary School, Assistant Principal Ken Goltara only has to ask his young charges how to solve it, and often they do.

When students were dumping soap on the bathroom floor and throwing wet paper towels on the ceiling, Goltara asked them for help. When students complained about not being allowed to eat lunch with their friends because they were being too loud, they worked out a compromise with Goltara.

Last year, Goltara said he spent much of his time disciplining students sent to his office for bullying. But after putting in place a tolerance program originally designed for high school students, Goltara says he has a changed campus.

"My former bullies … are the ones that are stepping in now to resolve conflict," he said.

The PLUS program, designed to increase tolerance and teach conflict resolution, is expected to be in each of the district's 15 schools by mid-November. The PLUS program, Peer Leaders Uniting Students, started at Murrieta Valley High School four years ago. It has made its way to the district's secondary schools, and last year, entered its first elementary school, Rail Ranch. It now serves students from the fourth grade through high school. The program is also in place at Buchanan Elementary School.

"The program has changed this campus," Goltara said. "It truly has."

John Vandenburgh, the district's PLUS coordinator, is helping to develop the program for kindergarten through third grade. He said he hopes eventually to take the program to parents.

In the upper grades, the focus is on breaking down stereotypes and talking about differences in order to gain an appreciation for each other.

Younger children aren't ready to talk about stereotypes, Goltara said.

"In elementary school, we decided to focus on the children's similarities," he said.

By addressing these issues in the early years, Vandenburgh and Goltara said they hope to prevent conflict in the later years. Goltara said the on-campus police officers at Murrieta Valley High broke up a fight there last year between two sophomore girls. "This whole grudge went back to the third grade," Goltara said.

On a recent morning, students from Vandenburgh's PLUS program at Vista Murrieta High led activities with fourth-graders at Rail Ranch. The students spent most of an hour getting to know each other in a series of games. They were paired up with partners they didn't know and talked about their dreams and favorite teachers. During one game, they revealed information about themselves to the entire group that ranged from the mundane -- some said they had sisters, or cats -- to the profound, with students saying they had lost an uncle or a father.

They talked about what they want to be when they grow up. They discussed what to do on the playground if they see bullying.

"I thought it was really fun because I got to know other people I didn't know," fourth-grader Josh Companion said. "We got to share our opinions and got to do activities."

Josh and other students say the program will improve their school.

It will make the school better, Josh said, "because they help you know other people and then you're a team. And we can help other people if they're in fights. We could help them make the right choices."

Fourth-grader Christopher Mangas agreed. "I think it's encouraging the other people to be a better citizen and there won't be that much bad people anymore," he said.

Until this year, students would typically go through one PLUS forum a year. But they wanted more, so Vandenburgh created what he calls the CORPS -- Creating Opportunities Resolving Peaceful Solutions. About once a month, all the students who have gone through a forum are invited to a CORPS meeting. There, they talk about what problems exist on campus and how to solve them.

Vandenburgh cautions that the program is not meant to create "security guards." The point, he and Goltara said, is to empower students.

"They actually have a voice now," Goltara said.

About 30 students are chosen per forum. At the elementary school level, they are often chosen from different friendship groups. At the high schools, Vandenburgh hand-picks the peer leaders. They, in turn, choose a handful of students from different races and ethnicities, personalities and cliques to attend a forum. The thought is the children can spread the program's ideals among their friends.

Katie Tackett and Cyndi Plaganis, both Rail Ranch fifth-graders, went through the program last year. They say PLUS is making school a more enjoyable place.

"A lot of kids aren't getting in trouble as much," Cyndi, 10, said.

"Kids are nice," 10-year-old Katie said.

Both girls said they have spoken up when they've seen something wrong -- a child littering, or a group of girls about to deliver a nasty note to an adult. They said they don't feel pressure to intervene.

"It makes you feel grown up," Katie said. If a student approaches her with a problem, "I know the right answer." And if she doesn't know, she said she will enlist the help of an adult.

At Buchanan, several students and fifth-grade teacher Sarina Flores, who is also the PLUS forum adviser, said the biggest problem on campus is arguments that break out on the handball court during recess.

Still, they said the program has helped the school, teaching students how to resolve conflicts before they escalate. They said they've made friends because of the forums.

Devon Graves, a fifth-grader at Buchanan, said that when he sees an argument brewing on the handball court, he'll say, "Be the smart one and leave."

At Buchanan, Warm Springs Middle School students lead the forums. Maria Henderson, 10, said she appreciated making a connection with an eighth-grade PLUS leader. She discovered that both have parents who are divorced. She didn't feel as alone, she said.

"It made me feel better and good to actually meet a new friend in the eighth grade," she said.

After going through the program, the students say they are conscious about judging people.

"I learned that you shouldn't make fun of people because of what they look like and you should get to know them before you judge them," Devon said. "I learned so much that in the sixth grade, I want to be in it again."

Contact staff writer Joanna Corman at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jcorman@californian.com.