Twenty male middle school students were recently brought together in an effort to build bridges between the different Island schools and help the boys develop skills to deal with conflict and act as peer leaders.

The Middle School Peer Mediation Training workshops were held October 24 at Sandys Middle School.

The workshops were led by Coalition for the Protection of Children director Sheelagh Cooper who usually conducts similar workshops at a Senior School level, with the assistance of male staff members from a number of Island schools.

The workshop leaders believe it is essential to instil these skills in the Island?s boys before they reach the senior school level.

?It?s often too late to wait until the students arrive at CedarBridge Academy or Berkeley Institute to start fostering communication and dealing with possible tension,? said Sandys Middle School educational therapist Kevin Grigsby. ?Bringing them together while they are still in middle school is an ideal time.?

Each middle school sent four male M3 students to participate in the workshops.

?Each of the participants were considered to be student leaders or possess leadership qualities,? Mr. Grigsby said.

?The goal of the training was two-fold. First, was to better enhance the leadership skills by training the students to become peer mediators.

?And secondly, to allow the students from each of the middle schools to have an opportunity to ? and hopefully ? form better relationships with one another.

?Another aim was for them to bond while participating in positive and constructive activities that will be of benefit to them throughout the school year and when they move on to senior school next school year.?

Staff members from the various schools that participated included Blake Tanner of Spice Valley Middle School, Anthony Peets of Clearwater Middle School, Trevor Williams of Dellwood Middle School and Warren Simmons from Whitney Institute Middle School as well as Mr. Grigsby.

Giving the young men an opportunity to converse and practice peer mediator skills was a main goal of the training.

?The students discussed what creates a conflict or ?beef?, what a conflict looks like, and how to resolve a conflict through peer mediation,? Mr. Grigsby said.

?In today?s society, where many young men are often so compelled to respond to acts of ?disrespect? with violence, the mediation can sometimes be met with some resistance by the parties engaged in the conflict.

?As it was explained to the young men during the workshop, they are the future leaders in the community and they and their peers will have the greatest impact in reducing violence in the community in future years.?

Later in the day, the participants were divided into groups in order to conduct role play exercises.

They had to develop a conflict, act it out and then engage in a peer mediation.

?The role plays were very realistic and many of the participants showed how committed they were to becoming peer mediators,? said Mr. Grigsby. ?Having the participants engage in intense role plays was a helpful way of preparing them for real life conflicts they would encounter as peer mediators.?

Even among middle schoolers, some disturbing tensions are already evident, he said.

?Improving the peer relationships among some of the participants may take time, as there was evidence of tension among a few of the participants from the different schools and, sadly, the ?Town? and ?Country? beefs do exist among some middle school students.?

But as the role plays were acted out, the benefits of peer mediation began to show themselves.

?The staff observed that the more the students interacted, in particular within their small role play groups, the level of macho bravado decreased and the level of co-operation and mutual respect increased among the students,? Mr. Grigsby said.

Mrs. Cooper said it was vital that the momentum established at the workshops be carried forward.

?Each of the male staff staff (members) expressed their commitment to continue to bring their students together again in the future for other collaborative activities,? she said.

?Follow up activities involving more students are very much needed, but the mediation training was the first step in achieving one of the goals outlined in the training, which was to help the students from the different schools form better relationships with one another that can be continued at the senior school level.?

The students who participated in the workshops were: Corey Bean, Chyone Harris, Marshall Stoneham and Deunte Wynn of Sandys Middle School; Dameko Dumblin, Shannon Burchall, Detre Ford and Micah Clamens of Whitney Institute Middle School; Salih Burns, TiaVince Douglas, Damion Collins and Wayne Broadley Samuels of Clearwater Middle School; Darion Simons, Jahfari Raynor, Auadir Maynard and Lejaun Simmons from Dellwood Middle School; and, Jaloni Alboury, Keishon Smith, Ghandia Russell and Shaquille Philpott of Spice Valley Middle School.