They Have No Fights but They’re Quick on the Trigger

--At the Law and Public Service Magnet High School, “they just don’t have fights,” said Shirley Seaton, who is in charge of social studies programs for Cleveland’s schools. “It’s something that just doesn’t happen.” An unusual program at the high school trains students to mediate disputes ranging from a hallway disagreement to a burgeoning food fight in the cafeteria. The high schoolers also are training 10 children from Robert Fulton Elementary School. Among the student trainers at the magnet school in a predominantly black section of the city is Gloria Epperson, 16, a sophomore who wants to be a criminal defense lawyer. “I like to talk a lot,” she said. “I like to relate to people. I like to argue. This school is the perfect place to start.” Students learn “trigger words”--those words that produce an emotional, often violent reaction from others. “My trigger is ‘Shorty,’ ” the diminutive Gloria added. “I hate to be called Shorty--but I can deal with it.” Teacher Dewey Carducci, who works with delinquents in the Cleveland schools, values the program for teaching youths that they have to learn the art of compromise. “To me, it’s a sleeping giant,” he said. “We haven’t even begun to tap the use of peers as helpers.”

--President and Mrs. Reagan plan a “nice, romantic” private celebration of their 34th anniversary, said Elaine Crispen, the First Lady’s press secretary. Crispen said the Reagans plan a private dinner for two tonight and will exchange cards. None of the Reagan children will be on hand. “It will be just the two of them, a nice romantic evening,” said Crispen. The Reagans, both actors in Hollywood at the time, were married on March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley.

--Author James A. Michener has been released from Seton Medical Center in Austin, Tex., where he underwent open heart surgery two weeks ago, hospital officials said. Michener, 79, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has written more than 30 books, underwent a quintuple heart bypass operation to remove blockages from five arteries.

--The Chinese Communist Party has expelled from the party one of the country’s well-known authors, the official New China News Agency reported. Zhou Erfu, 72, is alleged, among other things, to have watched pornographic video films on a visit last autumn to Tokyo. “Thus he tarnished the national integrity and dignity of a socialist country,” the party’s disciplinary committee said.