Students apply positive peer pressure
The Capital News,
By Marshall Jones
The bell rings and students stream out of the classrooms and quickly fill the hallways of KLO middle school.
Students from Grades 7 to 9 mix together and become indiscernible. But from their view, it’s an entirely different scene as a 13-year-old navigates the hormone-filled passages with kids two years-and sometimes several inches-taller.
Middle school is difficult transition from the kid-stuff of elementary school to a more formal and structured learning environment.
“Socially, students are coming from the top of one elementary school and suddenly they are in a much bigger place,” says KLO principal Carol MacWilliams.
“We have eight feeder schools which means a lot of new friends, but the building of friendships is stressful.”
It always has been, but now all middle schools in the district have signed on to the Welcome Every Body (WEB) program.
They take a select group of Grade 9 students and partner them up with groups of new Grade 7 students.
The older students introduce the younger ones to the new school and make themselves available for questions or concerns throughout the year.
“All those fears of the unknown are put to rest because they suddenly have a Grade 9 to talk to,” MacWilliams says. “Then they know they are not going to get shoved in the lockers.”
The WEB program was started in the
But KLO takes it one step further. More than a passing presence, WEB is part of formal classroom time with about three hours per week of instruction.
They learn employability and communication skills but more importantly, they participate in a pilot project on restorative justice.
Astrid Jack and Sam Crossley are on supervision at lunch hour. Most days it’s a casual walk through the halls or the yards, keeping in contact and making themselves available if someone needs something.
It’s a routine task all teachers are required to take turns on. But Jack and Crossley aren’t teachers, they’re teenagers-15 year-olds.
They are among 15 students hand-picked to lead a pilot project in the school in the school. They are WEB leaders but also restorative justice pioneers.
If it works the way they hope it will, they will catch skirmishes and conflicts before they become serious enough to land students in the principal’s office.
On duty, they wear blue T-shirts with the initials RJ where the S would be in Superman’s shield. The back of the shirts read, in large bold letters: “Can you hear me now?”
Jack has an explanation. “That is because we are helping other students find the words so they can communicate properly again. People lose what they are trying to say when conflict gets involved.”
They don’t solve anything. They don’t mete out punishment and they have no authority over anyone.
But all Grade 7s know who they are and what they do. They represent a chance to sort out problems.
If students don’t want to be involved or they won’t admit some role in the dilemma, that’s fine.
But Crossley says most students would rather sort it out among their peers than meet principal MacWilliams in her office.
Restorative Justice, as a concept, has nothing to do with blame or punishment. It’s a process of repairing harm caused by one member of a community on others.
It has come to represent a bright light of hope in the justice system, a better way for kids to realize the effect of their occasional bad behavior. But the principles are ancient, reaching back to times when being an active member of a community was vital to the success of all.