Members of the Police Service graduated from a mediating training course intended to help students resolve their conflicts before resorting to violence.

A group of 15 graduates, including seven School Resource Officers, shared testimony to the positive benefits of the advanced three-day course ? the last in a series of five ? held by Professor Dr. Cheryl A. Picard of Ottawa?s Carleton University.

P.c. Donville Yarde, P.c. Marlon Waldron, P.c. Dale Jackson, P.c. Ken Pitcher, P.c. David Johnston, P.c. Randy Vaucrosson and P.c. Roseann (Buffy) Mienzer learned to work with both sides in a conflict in an attempt to help students reach an agreement before violence starts.

The officers are currently placed at five middle schools throughout the Island as well as two high schools ? CedarBridge and Berkeley. ?Hopefully all of us work in the schools doing the mediation and at the same time teaching the children how to resolve their conflicts,? said Sergeant Michelle Simons, who graduated along with P.c. Waldron from the three-day course.

Sgt. Simons explained that often issues outside of school transfer over into school, but mediation gives students someone neutral to help them figure out how to move forward.

?Teaching them how to talk about it rather than fight about it,? said Dr. Picard, who has thought about working with educators on the Island and intended to spend the day with counsellors at CedarBridge in the future.

The executive director of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, Sheelagh Cooper, also received her certification for the course, and was excited that Police were learning new tools to resolve conflicts.

?Seven of them are Police officers that have graduated from this program with a certification. I am personally excited about that because it reflects a change in how they will approach policing,? Mrs. Cooper said.

She continued: ?It is such a different skill set that a Police officer would normally use, that?s what makes it so exciting?.

Course leader Dr. Picard noticed that the officers developed over the past two years.

?It went really well. It?s a different group than what started two years ago. They?re communicating? their attitude towards conflict has been influenced, partly because they are Police officers. They are applying the mediation and communication skills they are learning into the schools.?