AUBURN – Take off your hats. Turn off your cells. Carry everything – every book needed to get through your day – in a backpack.

And don’t eat the food.

“Pack a lunch or don’t eat,” senior Meghann Jacobs-Pratt counseled Auburn’s newest high-schoolers.

Like a veteran lecturer, Jacobs-Pratt ran through pages of topics for the incoming freshmen, covering issues as varied as when to get to school, “no later than 7:30 a.m,” and how much of a girl’s belly can be shown: “You might get away with a centimeter.”

To the six girls and seven boys in her audience, sitting in a cluttered Edward Little High School classroom, it was must-know information. Similar student-to-student meetings were going on throughout the school on this first day.

That they listened, asked questions and followed each tip was the whole point of the day-long exercise, the first of its kind in Maine.

“Kids want to hear from kids,” said Assistant Principal Steve Galway.

Planning for Wednesday’s orientation of the 308-member freshman class began last spring, after Galway and several other Auburn administrators attended a conference on mentoring.

The notion that kids could help kids – aiding them in the transition from middle school to high school – inspired the administrators.

They divided the Class of 2010 into groups of three or four. Then they took 150 applications from juniors and seniors who wanted to be mentors. Eighty-eight were chosen.

No bullying

On Tuesday, each wore an orange shirt and greeted the freshmen as they climbed off buses or left cars.

By 8:30 a.m, they were exchanging a bit of gentle hazing.

Two freshmen and one senior competed in a mentor-created race that included sprinting, spinning and chugging a pair of root beers.

A freshman, Jasmine Clarke, won. And senior Ryan Getchell paid the penalty, sitting in a blow-up kiddie pool while Clarke and fellow freshman Adam Lozis doused him in ice cream, syrup, soda and whipped cream.

The activity was meant to diffuse the worries of the kids – many of whom fear that bullying is tolerated in high school.

It’s not, Assistant Principal Leslie Morrill said.

“I saw kids arriving with tears this morning,” she said. They shouldn’t be scared.

“The freshmen are not going to be pushed around,” said Morrill, who helped select the student mentors. “Harassment won’t be tolerated.”

If someone is having a problem, they can talk to a teacher or counselor, she said.

They can also talk to a mentor, senior Breanna Wing said.

She and the other mentors plan to meet monthly with the kids in their groups, following them for the full school year.

“We want them to see Edward Little as a place that’s fun and safe,” Wing said.

The message was getting around.

The morning events eased the worries of freshmen Ethan Morency and Nicholas Moreau, both of whom had visited the school. Moreau, whose sister is a student, already knew people here.

“Knowing somebody helps,” he said.

But Kevin Moore’s worries were not eased. He was frightened by the size of the school, the complex schedule he received Wednesday morning and the demands of high school teachers.

To those worries, Jacobs-Pratt helped the most.

Her hints – practical and impractical – included warnings about iPods, gum chewing and text messaging.

She encouraged the new high-schoolers to do their homework: “If you don’t, it will pile up and pile up.”

Look for certain teachers’ study halls: “You can get away with anything.”

But in the end, resign yourself to the notion that the teacher is the boss.

“Hey, that’s their rule,” she said. “You’ve got to follow it.”

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