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Bunn students resolve peer conflicts
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Since the beginning of the school year, a group of Paul C. Bunn Elementary School students has worked to resolve conflicts among peers in 47 cases.
That’s 47 avoided fights and 94 students who didn’t have to go to the principal’s office.
“What’s most impressive about it is that, most of those cases the students referred themselves,” Principal William Baun said.
It indicates that students want to learn and to avoid conflict, he said.
Martha King, the school guidance counselor, started Bunn’s peer-mediation team this school year. Nine students meet in pairs to help their classmates resolve problems peacefully.
She believes it’s a useful process in schools, businesses and the community in general.
“We wouldn’t have all of these shootings and killings if we had conflict resolution,” King said.
King said she learned about peer mediation from retired school counselors Marcia Haire-Ellis and Lynette Miller and has wanted to start one for years. She was unable to before this year because she divided her time between schools. This year, she’s at Bunn full time.
Fourth-graders Anthony Allen, 9, and Julianna Wolfe, 10, Jastacia Merchant, 11, a sixth-grader; and Alyson Mitchum, 11, a fifth-grader, are members of the peer-mediation team.
A peer mediator, however, doesn’t take sides, Anthony explained.
Mediators bring the parties together, hear each side of the story and try to help the students reach a peaceful resolution.
“We can’t give them the solution,” Alyson said.
Mediators provide a forum for their classmates to hear each other in a relaxed setting.
Anthony believes it may be a more-appealing process to students than to take a dispute to an adult because it’s less intimidating.
Mediators could hear disputes from students from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Jastacia said that means they have to know how to break things down differently based on the individuals with whom they’re dealing and their respective levels of understanding.
To be a good mediator, a student must be a good listener and understand others’ feelings, King said.
There is a list of ground rules to which mediation participants must agree: Tell the truth, stay in your seat, be respectful, don’t interrupt and be responsible. Mediators must agree that the sessions, conducted during lunch, three days per week, remain confidential.
At the beginning of a session, the parties explain their side of an issue and describe how it makes them feel.
When students come into a mediation, they’re usually angry, sad or both, Julianna said.
When a resolution is reached, each student must sign a contract, agreeing to the terms.
In one case, a boy was taking pencils from a girl. She believed he was stealing from her. He thought that she had plenty of pencils and should be nice and allow him to borrow them.
They agreed, through mediation, that he would ask before he used one of her pencils and that she would be nicer and share them.
In the rare case when a resolution can’t be reached, the issue is referred to King.
“There were only two out of the 47 cases where that had to happen,” King said.
She believes the sessions teach both the mediators and the affected parties valuable skills.
“This isn’t just about school,” King said.
Conflict resolution is useful in any arena involving people, she said.
It also helps mediators improve their communication and interpersonal skills, King said.
The students enjoy the work.
“It’s fun,” Julianna said.
“I like what it does for our school,” Jastacia said.