Your Document-Electric Library http ://www.elibrary.com/id/2525/getdoc.cgi?id=50001297x0y164&O)D S~QOO1D020&Forn Peer mediation proposed for all Detroit public schools Peer mediation proposed for all Detroit Public Schools. Ron Boland, a counselor in Detroit's Finney High School, has co-authored an extensive proposal to provide peer mediation programs to all Detroit public schools in order to resolve conflicts between student and reduce violence. Also sponsoring the proposal are Sharon Miller, Director ofthe Neighborhood Reconciliation Center and Dr. Brantley Johnson. In the program, young people would be trained to receive mediation training and assigned to help students resolve conflicts. Mediators do not judge who is right or who is wrong or settle conflicts, but help people involved work out a settlement acceptable to both sides. Because "peer pressure" often reinforces aggressiveness, and makes children and teenagers see violence as necessary to gain "respect" or recognition of manhood, as feel they will be considered weak if they "back down," observers believe that having their fellow students involved in dispute resolution programs will increase their effectiveness . IN 1993, Boland stated, Western International High School within Southwest Detroit started training teachers, counselors, community leaders, and administrators in mediation (including the principal, Gloria Clark- Arnold, who encouraged the program.) They later arranged a 16 hour training program for 18 selected student candidates, Boland said. "As a lead trainer in those sessions," Boland stated, "I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the participants and the manner in which they absorbed the information presented, as well as the skills demonstrated . " Other schools adopted the program, including Osborn High School, which instituted a school wide program for dispute interviews this year, he stated. At his own school, Finney High School, which Boland says has "received its share of violence in the past," the entire faculty was presented with information about mediation and a structwed plan for implementing a Qeer mediation program. In an article within the summer/fall newsletter for the Wayne County Dispute Resolution Centers, Boland said that two faculty members, aside from himselfhave received mediation training at Finney. Ethnic NewsWatch © SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT Seigel, Ron, Peer mediation proposed for all Detroit public schools., Michigan Citizen, 01-07-1995, pp 1 of 2 29/Sep/96 6:1.