Little Red joins ‘Choose Love’ movement
With Lewis standing in front of them, the students learned about her Choose Love Movement, an effort to prevent similar tragedies by implementing social and emotional learning programs in communities that now include Santa Cruz County.
“It’s not just about our rating in teaching math, science or social studies. It starts with empowering children to be resilient, to choose love, to stop bullying,” school principal Kathy Romero said about bringing the program to her students. “Eventually we’re hoping that this will be a community effort, starting here at Little Red.”
The movement was introduced to the community by local residents Nisa Talavera and Heidi Pottinger, who started a similar local nonprofit called CHARM (Child Health and Resilience Mastery).
“All of the character values that the Choose Love Movement teaches align with our mission, so we felt that it really made the most sense to plant those seeds first before rolling out with our other programs,” Pottinger said, as Talavera added that her own daughters attend Little Red, a K-8 school east of Nogales.
