DELHI TOWNSHIP — At Delhi Middle School students have come up with a way to break up fights: they mediate them.

        At some institutions, these conflicts may be a win, lose, or draw situation. At Delhi Middle School, it's a means to an end.

SIX-STEP PROCESS

Peer mediation at Delhi Middle School can be requested by students, teachers, counselors, social workers, assistant principal, principal or parents.     Sessions follow a six-step process:     1. Parties agree to mediate; ground rules explained.     2. Each disputant tells his side.     3. Focus on interest; what are disputants seeking?     4. Create win-win options; brainstorm ideas to address the dispute.     5. Evaluate options.     6. Create an agreement and write an action plan that both parties sign. Session ends with handshake.     Mediators and disputants fill out an evaluation after each session. School counselors usually follow up on the incident with disputants.     — Valerie Christopher

        Eagles Equals Mediators Catching Conflict (E=MC2) is the title of the peer mediation program started last year by counselor Joan Halloran.

        The name is derived from the school's team name. The program has resolved more than a dozen confrontations, ranging from hearsay arguments to gossip among the 650 sixth- through eighth-grade students.

        Although it's too early to gauge the success of the program, mediator Michael Lee, 14, says peer mediation has him thinking more responsibly.

        “It makes you think more about what you do before you do it,” Michael said.

        Ms. Halloran said the program is promising.

        “I started the program because I have learned in my many years as a school counselor that kids seem to learn from one another,” she said. “One can always find someone who has experienced the same type of event. Kids like to talk about how they handled situations.”

        Ms. Halloran is in her fourth year at Delhi and 17th year of counseling in the Oak Hills school district.

        Using the manual, Peer Mediation Conflict Resolution in Schools (Research Press) as their training guide, Ms. Halloran joined forces with Staci Sabato, a counselor at Delhi Middle. They trained 23 seventh- and eighth-graders in a two-day session last spring.

        “Students are learning how to act as modeled students when it comes to solving conflicts and we're hoping the leadership roles trickles down to the entire student body.” Mrs. Sabato said. "

        The goal in peer mediation is to get disputants to brainstorm solutions to their problems. Some experts say teen-agers are more successful at this than adults.

        “Teen-agers are masterminds when it comes down to getting kids to seek out solutions,” said James Brush is a child psychologist and divorce mediator who has a private practice in Monfort Heights. He said teens feel uneasy when forced to settle disputes with school counselors because of the fear of getting punished.

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