Shrieks fill the courtyard at Desert View High School as about a dozen girls fling glitter at each other.
It's an all-out war. A glitter war, to be precise.
This is Girl Time, and the day's theme is Glitter Me Beautiful.
For five weeks, Desert View special education teacher Roseanna Gonzalez has hosted Girl Time in her classroom Fridays after school.
Each week, Gonzalez invites a woman from the community to speak to the group. They watch a film, play a game, do some sort of crafty activity, and of course, snack.
The whole point is to inspire, empower and encourage these girls to change the culture on their campus.
"You are the future, point blank," Gonzalez told a group of about 20 girls Friday, Feb. 10. "You create this beautiful world."
The two-hour session usually begins with each girl interviewing and presenting about a partner they don't know well. Gonzalez also encourages the girls to share their week's victories and praise others during a designated time.
Felicity Moriconi, 18, interviews her partner at the beginning of Girl Time, Friday, Feb. 10.
When Fina Mercado, 16, approached Gonzalez about her desire to do something positive for the school, Gonzalez took that as a call to action. She had heard similar things from other girls.
"There's a lot of things I see that hurt my heart," Fina, a sophomore, says. "I have friends getting into drugs, having sex and basically losing sight of their self esteem. I want the girls at this school to be happy with themselves."
Part of that means getting to know other girls on campus. The Friday we went to Girl Time, most, if not all, of the girls agreed harsh words often created an atmosphere of fear of judgment on campus.
Encouraging the girls to speak positively is an attempt to change that, one person at a time. Gonzalez has found that some girls struggle both with giving and receiving compliments. They're accustomed to disgust, not delight.
"We can value each other's opinions even if we don't agree," Gonzalez says. "We don't need to contribute to the ugliness."
The group has grown just by word of mouth from about eight or nine girls the first time to close to 20. The group is diverse and friendships are forming, Gonzalez says.
"Let's build a bridge between cultures, religions and ages," she says. "There's no particular description of a girl. We are diverse in make up."
While introducing their peers to the group after the one-on-one interviews, the girls shared their dreams of working in healthcare, law enforcement, photography and engineering. One mentioned a desire to be a cyber hacker for the government.
Lourdes Gomez, an 18-year-old senior, attended for the first time at the invitation of Gonzalez to share about her recent trip to a California engineering and design convention with 27 other classmates. She was one of two students in the group to walk away with an industry-recognized certification. She is one of several girls in boy-heavy class, she says.
Gonzalez wanted her experiences to encourage other girls not to "close the doors to opportunities just because 'I don't like math and science.'"
Mara Brittain, a 16-year-old sophomore, attends Canyon Rose Academy but still makes the trip to Girl Time after school on Fridays. She was a freshman at Desert View.
"It's an open place for girls to hang out," Mara says. "It's an open community of girls."
And Gonzalez wants that to spread.
Just like the glitter.
Fina Mercado, left, and Mara Brittain, right, throw glitter at each other in an all-out battle in the Desert View High School courtyard during Girl Time. The theme was Glitter Me Beautiful.
"Glitter gets everywhere," she says. "You hug someone and they have glitter ... It's on you. Wherever you go, you will leave glitter behind, because you guys are beautiful, wonderful and unique."
