Common Questions & Answers

Where do mediations happen?

At the elementary, middle school or junior high school level. Mediations can happen in the hallway, in a special mediation room, in the classroom, in the principal's office, the counselor's office or anyone's office.

When do mediations happen?

Whenever scheduled by the mediation coordinator. Mediations that are scheduled during class time should be checked out beforehand with the teacher and the student. It is recommended for teachers to fill out a form that describes which mediators have permission to leave class periodically to mediate a referred case; and students should fill out their class schedule so the coordinators will know where to find them.

How many mediators should I have?

Many programs have trained 25-30 mediators, expecting that some of them may drop out due to a variety of reasons.

How should I select the mediators?

There are a variety of ways to select students to be peer mediators. Two critical considerations in choosing students are: 1) choosing a wide spectrum of students to be involved and not just the "good" students and 2) keeping it a voluntary process. Schools have found that some students can be encouraged to be peer mediators, but these students must recognize that it is their choice, not someone else's.

Some methods of choosing students include:

• random selection of students who have volunteered
• staff selection of positive and negative leaders from the school
• student and staff nomination (from each 4th & 5th grade class) and staff selection
• peer mediation nomination at the end of the semester for next year
• interviews with interested candidates

Remember that students need to know the benefits of being involved. They too need to "buy-in" to the process.

How often should student mediators meet?

We recommend weekly meetings for the first six months and then tapering off to bi-weekly meetings until the beginning of the next year with new mediators.

What should I do in the weekly meetings?

Review skills, debrief cases, engage in team building activities, do role-plays, discuss issues and brainstorm options, review goals and objectives, and read stories about conflicts, write stories about conflict resolutions, design trainings for younger students and/or parents, and...celebrate and pass out awards!

Who should train students to be mediators?

We recommend having at least two team members co-train the students in the process and all staff in the conflict mediation team, paraprofessionals, parents and other peer mediators involved as coaches, if possible. It is important that all trainers and coaches of the mediation process be familiar with the process beforehand. Anyone can be involved as participants but should only be involved as coaches of role-plays if they have had previous training, if they work alongside someone who has had training or in occasional cases, if they have watched a role play demonstration on video and have read the handbook on productive conflict resolution.