In a world where people live their lives by the screen, it is easy to forget to socialize. PSI acknowledges the growing need for social interaction and seeks to address it by facilitating opportunities for students to have fun, meaningful social interactions that bring the LT community together at a time when people are drifting further apart.
“We’re trying to facilitate conversation with the student body, building a safe and welcoming market for everybody,” PSI leader Leah Thakadiyil said. “That’s what our club does.”

Peaceable School Initiative (PSI) is a club that strives for there to be community at LT. 

Recently, they held PSI week, which happened April 20-24. Each day was a new theme, intending to encourage social interaction and school spirit.
“The purpose of the PSI week is really just to have a lot of student engagement,”  PSI student leader Paula Calderon-Padilla said. “Our leaders and other volunteers all get together to create different activities so that students are able to have an opportunity to kind of relax, and have some time to be free from stress.” 

Themes like meet new people Monday promote students to get out of their comfort zone, while twin Tuesday is designed to strengthen the bond and relationships of students and teachers. Whatever the day, PSI provides LT’s student body with activities that are simple and give everyone a chance to be a part of the school community.

“It’s just to be fun, but also to get people thinking and talking to each other,” said Leah Thakadiyil ‘26.” It’s just another way to reach out to as many students as possible, and help build community.”

PSI week’s main event is the PSI fair, which happens on the Wednesday of PSI week at the SC library. The event involves PSI and other contributing clubs creating activities that SC classes had the possibility of participating in throughout the day.
“Any kind of student organization that’s kind of a leadership one can run an educational thing,” club sponsor Michelle Harbin said. “It’s fun and it’s kids teaching kids how to be leaders, how to have teamwork, how to communicate, and how to be the LT community.” 

While PSI has been holding events for a number of years now, it first started when an increase in school shootings, among other things, occurred. It prompted the need for such a club, a club striving to connect everyone, leaving no one feeling left behind.
“Back in the late ’90s, we were like, how do we get kids to be involved and be active and communicate,” Harbin said. “So we know what’s going on in people’s heads to help or to share or to let people be heard we had some workshops with teachers and community members, and then from there we had some student workshops, and PSI came out of that.”

Overall, PSI does its best to bring the LT community together. However, the club can only go as far as students allow it to go. When nobody believes in participation, that’s when the initiative dies.
“Students make an impact just by being part of social interactions,” Calderon-Padilla said. “If students actively participate and stay engaged, our mission of supporting students is being fulfilled.”