Student Mediators Take Teacher’s Role

Student mediators at Pacoima Middle School played teacher Friday to visiting educators from Latin America, demonstrating their techniques for solving schoolyard disputes.

Heading into its fifth year, the Conflict Mediators and Managers program at Pacoima has become a model for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Officials recommended it as a must-see to a group of educators from 11 Latin American countries visiting Los Angeles as part a five-city tour to study civic education in the United States.

Friday afternoon in the school library, four students staged a mock mediation for the visitors, followed by a question-and-answer session in which all 21 students in the program took part.

“The first time I did a mediation I was scared because I didn’t know what the disputants would think,” said eighth-grader Patty Torres, who last spring was among the group selected to participate in the 10-week training course required of all student mediators.

“But afterward they liked it and it made me feel good because I realized I could really help someone. It really helps when [students] can express their feelings.”

“We don’t encourage them to get involved in fights on the playground,” said Mitchel Katz, a school counselor and program coordinator. “The way the program works is the students are referred and we call them in to see if they want to try to resolve the problems through mediation.”

The only instance in which mediation is mandatory is after a fight, when the students return from suspension. If they refuse, they get a date with the dean of discipline, Katz said.

“The reason it works so well is that it’s their peers helping them. It’s not an adult saying, ‘You will do this, you will do that,’ ” said program coordinator Corinne Dellosso.

The visitors, representing countries from Mexico to Peru, were impressed with the program, said Ricardo Bernardo, an interpreter with the U.S. State Department who was serving as an escort for the group.

“The whole idea of peer mediation is something very new for them. They were very excited to come here to learn how it works with children,” Bernardo said.