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Peers settle Gilbert school squabbles
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PRACTICING: 10-year-old Rhiley Butcher., a fifth-grader, acts out a skit with other students in which they practice the appropriate way to resolve a dispute. Bettina Hansen
For the Tribune
When Gilbert Elementary School students have a conflict — such as an argument over who called “next” in a game of playground tetherball — someone with authority steps in.
That someone isn’t a teacher or administrator, but a fellow student trained in settling disputes.
This week, more than 130 students from third through sixth grade participated in peer mediation training to learn how to help fellow students resolve problems by talking and coming up with solutions.
“It’s extremely effective,” said Louise Heeman, the school social worker. “If it’s your resolution, you’re more apt to follow it opposed to someone else telling you what to do.”
Gilbert Elementary has used peer mediation for at least 10 years, and Heeman said it cuts down on discipline problems by as much as 50 percent.
The mediators learn good listening skills and what questions to ask to help other students resolve conflict.
Shelby Shippy, a 10-year-old fifth-grader, said this will be her third year as a peer mediator. She wanted to do it so she could “help people solve their problems.”
Conflicts she’s helped resolve in the past include students fighting over who would be football captain or who would be first to go down the slide.
She said peer mediators explain the process to the students in conflict and then those students find a resolution.
Seth Casillas, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, is also in his third year as a peer mediator and said the skills he’s learned have helped him resolve conflicts at home with his older brother.
When he helps other students solve their problems, it makes him feel good, he said, “because they’re friends again, we can all hang around with each other now and they’re both happy.”
Heeman said peer mediators turn in paperwork after they’ve worked with students that indicate whether the problem was resolved. If not, she can step in. She also uses the sheets to track if any students are having a lot of conflicts, which may be a sign that they need more support services at school.
Sue Dunning, a third-grade teacher who led one of the training sessions, said her students enjoy being mediators.
“I feel like it builds their self-esteem that they can solve problems,” she said. “They learn not to be so judgmental, they look at facts and (then) make judgment.”
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