January 21, 2009 04:47 pm
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SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Because the administration at Lakeside High School is always looking for more creative ways to improve school climate, Ashtabula Area City Schools superintendent Joseph Donatone introduced the concept of Peer Mediation to Gail Deligianis. She then chose Darla Cunningham, Lakeside High School’s student support specialist, to be the high school building coordinator for Peer Mediation and Bonnie Short was selected as the junior high building coordinator.
Peer Mediation is a program created to be an alternative to an office referral for a verbal altercation. This new program is designed to encourage the two involved parties to “work it out” in a controlled environment. The “peer mediators” will be in the same grade as the involved parties.
At the beginning of the school year letters were sent out to teachers and staff asking for recommendations for responsible students. Mrs. Cunningham and her supervisors then selected students they personally knew to become involved in this program. Students from each grade level then viewed an introduction to the program during their English classes and were encouraged to sign up if they were interested in participating. The same procedure was followed at the junior high for the eight graders.
A total of 12 eighth graders, 10 freshmen, six sophomores, four juniors and four seniors were finally selected to be trained as mediators. A two-day training for all trainee mediators was then held in the Large Group Instruction Room at Lakeside. Also attending the training, provided by On-Tasc, were various staff members from the junior high and senior high schools, including two Lakeside High teachers, Brian Toth and Nancy Fratis, who hoped to gain more knowledge about mediating these kinds of situations.
To work toward being more prepared for actual confrontations, students have been participating in additional training with Mrs. Cunningham and Mrs. Deligianis during their lunch periods. During the lunch sessions the students role play different situations and break up into teams to get a better feel for what it is going to be like. Mrs. Cunningham has set up a room next door to hers to be the “mediation center” where the two parties and the mediating team will have their own personal space to talk in confidence. Mrs. Cunningham said that the room being right next door to hers is for her convenience. She will be a member of the mediating team although she will not be in the room at the time of the actual mediation.
“Well, we all know that this is something that we need at Lakeside, and I am very confident that this will be successful,” said Mrs. Cunningham. “All the students are so positive and it’s great to know that the staff is all advocating for it.”
The Peer Mediation program began this week.
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