A Salisbury school is using mindfulness as an alternative for discipline

One school in Salisbury is trying a different approach when it comes to discipline.

At Prince Street Elementary, students are being taught how to use mindful thinking, in order to think about their actions and movements, as an alternative to traditional discipline.

The non-profit organization leading this pilot program is called Mindfully Anchored.

Mindfulness is described as a simple idea, learning how to live in the moment.

But it can be difficult, since many of these young students are just learning how to pay attention.

The program has several groups, 77 students total, and each group has 30 minute sessions.

Non-profit founder Ashton Donoway tells 47 ABC that many students tend to react out of emotion, but mindfulness is giving them a tool to respond more thoughtfully.

Donoway says, "To teach the kids that there can be a space between something just happened, I can respond rather than react and I think they didn't even know that before so just to see that click in their mind you can think of what you're going to do before you do it and the repercussions are a lot more positive when you think about it than they are when you don't."

Donoway says they are in week 7 of the 8-week program and she has already seen results.

During that time, the fifth grade students' referrals went down from ten to zero.

She tells 47 ABC that she hopes this program expands not only county wide, but state wide as well.