INSIDE SCOOP COMMENTARY PARENTING SPEARS’ PREGNANCY RAISES ISSUES PAGE 3 CHRISTMAS REALITIES PAGE 4 YOUNG AND VIOLENT TEENS PAGE 7 Visit us online at smdp.com TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2007 Volume 7 Issue 37 Santa Monica Daily Press A FEAST FOR THE EYES SEE PAGE 9 Since 2001: A news odyssey THE MERRY CHRISTMAS ISSUE HOLIDAY SEASON DECKING THE HALLS Local homes get all dressed up PHOTO ESSAY BY BRANDON WISE PAGE 8 Brandon Wise
[email protected] Old-fashioned school mediating BY MELODY HANATANI It was the first dispute that the eighth- Middle School, an extra-curricular activity schools, training and working with more Daily Press Staff Writer grader had resolved as a peer mediator at where students, not teachers, resolve the than 60 students between the two locations. John Adams Middle School, an awkward variety of conflicts that can arise among The program aims to eliminate the JAMS Rodney Johnson sat back in his seat, first experience considering the altercation adolescents during a volatile developmental instances of fighting between students, listening as the two junior high school stu- involved two of his good friends. time, from relationship and friendship teaching at a young age that discourse is a dents sitting before him bickered about a “I’m at work right now,” he responded at break-ups to even something as seemingly better way to resolve conflict rather than fight that had occurred earlier, a tiff sparked the time. “I’m a professional.” minor as looking at another student in the resorting to physical violence. Students are by name calling.