A Clark County nonprofit offers mediation training for Clark County students to help resolve nonviolent conflicts with their peers.
Community Mediation Services started training students at a Vancouver Public Schools’ middle school to be peer mediators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the youth program has expanded to seven Vancouver schools with 184 students trained to intervene in conflict situations with their peers.
Now, Shahala Middle School will be Evergreen Public Schools’ first school to try out the program, with training starting in May to prepare for the next school year.
“I feel like having someone who is closer to your age helping you talk through something is a lot more helpful because they understand you on a level that an adult couldn’t,” Fort Vancouver High School senior Addison Miles said.
At Fort, when a nonviolent conflict arises between students, they can visit the Restorative Room, a classroom designated as a safe space for the students to resolve their conflict with two peer mediators.
“We’re taking that extra step to be proactive instead of reactive,” said Alizz Quarles, Fort’s intervention specialist who oversees the school’s program.
Senior Braydon Johnson, 18, a peer mediator, helped to resolve a relationship dispute, a result of miscommunication, he said.
“It was pretty much just them talking to each other and figuring it out, and me just guiding them,” he said.
In January, 19 Fort students went through mediation training. Each peer mediator gets National Association for Community Mediation certified.
Andrew Hillen, youth program director for Community Mediation Services, said students learn the process of mediation and what to do in certain scenarios. The mediator begins with an opening statement laying down the ground rules and explaining that it is a voluntary and confidential meeting. Then, those involved with the conflict agree to the terms. After hearing all sides of the story, the group will come up with some sort of contract on how to move forward.
“We really want to get across the idea that people have fights, war, arguments, shouting matches,” Hillen said. “But our goal in conflict resolution, generally, is not to eliminate conflict. Our goal is to merely find the best way to resolve it.”
During the 2021-22 school year, McLoughlin Middle School was the first Vancouver school to join the program. Students were trained via Zoom, although they weren’t able to resolve any conflicts due to the pandemic.
The following year, Community Mediation Services helped Vancouver iTech Preparatory implement the program. Then, the program continued to expand with more partner schools.
At Fort, the peer mediators, Quarles and Arrah Westling, the Community Mediation Services representative overseeing three Vancouver schools, meet every Monday to discuss the previous week’s mediations — what went well and what could improve.
“We’re coming from a school with the reputation of having the most stupid fights happen from the most random and resolvable things,” said senior Daniel Martinez-Posas, 18. “I feel like every school needs something like this to help everyone be in a comfortable environment where we can resolve conflict.”
