Near the end of an interview about diversity at Klahowya Secondary School, sophomore Ruby Fa’aita used the term “floaters” to describe the student body at the Central Kitsap School District’s smallest secondary school.

It is the only one with seventh- through 12th-graders in the same building.

“We’ll be hanging out with preps one day and kids in Amigo jeans the next,” Fa’aita said in describing how there aren’t any set social groups in the school.

Senior Paul Kelly agreed that for the most part, KSS doesn’t have any cliques and everyone is at least respectful of each other’s differences, whether they be in clothing or background or sexual orientation.

“Diversity is anything that makes you different and it’s not just race,” Kelly said. “It’s your personality, your background and things like that.”

Fellow senior Michelle Skelly agreed with Kelly’s definition that diversity is all about “being different,” whether it’s age, sex or race.

At the beginning of each school year, students are told to be respectful of one another’s differences and treat each other with respect, Fa’aita said, adding that when incidents arise, the school’s administrators quickly remind students to be respectful.

Although this past month was Black History Month, each of the students said they were only slightly aware of it and that no special emphasis was placed on the effort, but none offered a possible explanation for how it was handled.

During President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony, Fa’aita said both extremes were represented as some students stood on desks to celebrate the event, while others wore white to make a statement against the event.

“It was something a group of students did that teachers didn’t know about,” she said, adding that for the most part the student body was supportive of Obama’s inauguration.

How-ever, in the midst of the celebratory atmosphere, Fa’aita said there were people talking about how they waited 200 years for such an event and how it was time to make up for the past, which was upsetting to many students.

“My friends and I weren’t around 200 years ago, so they need to leave the past in the past and let’s move on to the future,” she said. “We had nothing to do with that.”