William R. Martin Middle School prevailed last year but it’s anyone’s game now.

Students from Martin Middle won the Safe School Challenge for 2009-2010, an honor bestowed to them because they referred only four cases to the Dallas County juvenile court and probation office.

But now the count starts over for the year.

“Now we start tracking them,” said Mark Irwin, program coordinator.

Irwin and the Safe School Challenge team kicked off the year with a rally at Martin Middle Friday and will travel to the other middle and high schools in Dallas County to get students excited and focused on the program.

The challenge is this: be the school with the least amount of referrals reported to the juvenile court and probation office for Dallas County from the first day of school in August until two weeks prior to the last day of school in May.

Incidents occurring on school property or in the community are recorded in the tally.

“If your school signs a complaint and brings an offense you have done to our office, that counts against your school,” Irwin said. “If you go out in the community and commit an offense, guess what? It counts against your school. If you get in a fight, if you go to Wal-Mart and steal something, or at Dollar General, it counts against you. If you disobey your parents or if you are disobedient at home and it makes its way to our office, it goes against your school.”

Participating schools are Selma Middle C.H.A.T. Academy, Dallas County High, Keith High, William R. Martin Middle, Selma High, Southside High and Tipton Middle.

Martin Middle has seen a drastic decrease in referrals from about 51 three years ago to four last year.

Paul Thomas, assistant principal and program coordinator for the school, places the success of the school and the accountability on the students.

“You all are the most important piece to this puzzle,” Thomas said. “If you all don’t come to school with the right attitude of knowing really why you’re here, that puzzle is going to fall apart. I don’t want that puzzle to fall apart. I want that puzzle to stay intact.”

To create a peer support system, each school selects eight to 12 students for the Safe School Council. Students on the council are responsible for creating, promoting and implementing projects to encourage peers to follow the program.

Council members at Martin Middle designed posters for the halls of the school last year and announced reminders of the incentives, such as a school dance for students without an in or out of school suspension, to encourage students to be on their best behaviors.

“It’s not like a tattletale type of thing and get people in trouble,” said Tyra Ross, Martin Middle eighth grade student council member. “It’s not that we want to get you in trouble. We want to help you stay out of trouble so you can get rewarded. I don’t want them to feel scared or anything because it’s not like that at all.”

Last year she reported about two incidents of girls arguing in the bathroom, but nothing which was reported to the juvenile court.

“If we heard about fights, we would tell,” Tyra said. “We try to keep violence down in the school to eliminate fights and drama.”

Judge Bob Armstrong reminded students to follow the rules so they will not have to appear in his court.

“We want y’all to stay out of trouble,” Armstrong said. “I want you to succeed and I want our community to be a safe place to live and a good place to live. Part of my job is to make sure there are consequences when they’re appropriate. You’ve been warned and I’m sure I’ll hardly see any of you.”