KELLY STUDENTS LEARN METHODS TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS WITHOUT VIOLENCE

BENTON -- Students in Kelly School District hope to help classmates resolve problems without resorting to violence.

Twenty middle and high school students completed a peer mediation course Wednesday to develop their counseling and arbitration skills. Elementary students will be trained as mediators in coming weeks after teachers and administrators make their final selections.

"When I grow up I do want to be a teacher. I think this could help with that," said Nikki Heuring, 17.

The course was taught by Dr. Russ Thompson of the Missouri Center for Safe Schools. He said the training allows students to act as go-betweens to help resolve a dispute without involving adults.

"We try to settle problems without getting the teachers and officials involved," he said. "The only time mediators wouldn't be allowed to handle a situation is if it involved fighting or a personal property dispute."

Heuring believes the program will be a good start for helping students work through their problems. Students, especially those in high school, may be reluctant to use mediators in the beginning because of peer pressure, she said.

"I think it would work better if they knew they could come to us about anything, not just about conflict," Heuring said. "If we make it available to students and they see how beneficial it is to students, I think they will use it."

Elementary school principal Doug Thornton said the program is part of the district's "violence curriculum frameworks." It is one of several programs starting this year to improve school safety.

"It's very interesting to see what they're doing with it," Thornton said. "The students seem to really be getting something out of this."

Thompson told students how they approach combatants, how they speak, and even sit will determine how effective they are as mediators.

Good mediators must be empathetic, hold a relaxed posture, make eye contact, allow time for others to express themselves, accurately assess the feelings of those involved and be able to verbally and physically express those feelings, and help combatants come to a positive resolution of an issue.

"When they come to you, they're holding their own personal positions that they are not willing to move from," Thompson said. "Your job is to move them from their positions to a situation where they are expressing their interests, which is a much broader field to work from. " It's a situation of either expressing what they want and expressing what they need," he said. "You need to tell what it is they need."

During the next two weeks, peer mediators will make classroom presentations to introduce the peer mediation concept. Afterwards, drop boxes and special forms will be placed throughout the school buildings so students can make referrals.

Faculty sponsors will check the boxes periodically and call in mediators on a rotating basis before school or during study halls and lunch periods.

Sarah Anglin, 13, said she believes more middle school students will use the service. Students at that age rely on their friends for many different things, and the peer mediators probably will be called on often, she said.

"They can't always talk about things with adults that they can talk about with us," she said.