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NEGAUNEE -- For six years, the Peer Coach Program at Negaunee High School has been changing the way students interact with those who are disabled.  And this year, 50 peer coaches, who are also students at the high school, want to take their efforts one step further.

Wednesday, the peer coaches asked their fellow students and faculty members to sign a pledge of support eliminating use of the "r" word or "retard" which is slang for the term, mental retardation.

The online pledge only took a minute to sign, and the students who participated received bracelets as a reminder of their pledge.

Negaunee High School junior and peer coach, Marah Dempsey, says she got involved in the program because it bothered her that such wonderful students were often overlooked because of their disabilities.

One of the disabled girls she is closest with says Dempsey makes coming to school much easier for her.

"She likes my hair, and she likes my smiles every morning,” the disabled girl said.  “So that's what it is."  

As a first year student, a teacher asked Dempsey if she wanted to take part in the Peer Coach Program.  Dempsey agreed to participate.

"When I was a freshman, I had a lot of trouble trying to, like, talk to them and stuff,” said Dempsey.  “But now that we see each other in the hallway, we say ‘hey’ and we have our inside jokes and everything."

"Once she called me Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, and I don't know why, but she did," the disabled girl said, laughing.

After Wednesday, peer coaches hope their fellow students will recognize how hurtful using the “r” word can be for disabled students as well as students with disabled friends or family members.

"We're trying to get people to say more respectful things and not hurtful things to the students and to everybody in their everyday vocabulary,” Dempsey said.  “It's become a word everybody is using and we really don't want that, it should be ended."

You can make the pledge to support eliminating the r-word by clicking here.