Schools are integral institutions to today's society--they educate our children, they are the social stomping grounds where our children learn much more than "the 3 Rs," they employee many talented hard working folks, and they can be social hubs for the communities in which they reside. Not surprisingly, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) opportunities can abound in these multifaceted environments! Gearing up for the new 2012-2013 school year, the Summer 2012 Dispute Resolution Magazine is devoted to discussing how mediation and other forms of ADR intersect with the school environment.
In one article, authors Philip Moses and Timothy Hedeen discuss Collaborating for our Children's Future: Mediation of Special Education Disputes. They give three examples of typical special ed related disputes, and demonstrate how mediation can provide greater outcome satisfaction as well as improving relations between parties who will frankly have to work together for many years to come. The authors contra-pose these outcomes with those more likely to entail in cases of formal due process hearings: broken relations, entrenched positions, and decisions that are more typically in the school's favor. The authors also do an outstanding issue of framing the basic factual and legal issues in jargon-free and accessible language, and explaining how Congress has expressed a preference for alternative resolution of special ed disputes.
Lisa Abregu writes beguilingly of how Restorative Justice in Schools can Restor[e] Relations and Build[] Communities. Abregu argues that "'discipline,' as originally understood, mean[t] to educate, to instruct, and to correct." but that the term has been perverted in the school context to mean only "to chastise" or to "punish." She notes that the widely popular "zero-tolerance systems" (which
I have criticized elsewhere) lead to higher suspension and student failure rates. She does a beautiful job succinctly describing the ideals of restorative justice as they relate to the discipline and social utility questions: "Restorative justice enhances social and emotional intelligence--the ability to identify and navigate emotions within oneself and with others. It also sensitizes participants to the value of relationships within and between social groups, and it strives to teach responsibility, accountability, honesty, empathy, and the satisfactions provided by work ... An offender listens, often for the first time, to people harmed by his conduct. He hears how others have experienced the consequences of his conduct. The offender is exposed to their hurt and their confusion, then, often for the first time, the offender experiences those people listening to him -- and he feels them trying to understand. Then he is asked to contribute to the process of fashioning an appropriate response to the situation that his conduct has created," and "[h]is ideas are taken seriously. He is taken seriously. he owns up. He is a real player in the real world. All for the first time." (For more on victim-offender mediation, please see Mark S. Umbreit's seminal text, The Handbook of Victim Offender Mediation.)
Finally, Emily Linnemeier makes "the case for peer mediation and conflict resolution education in schools." See School-based Conflict Resolution Education and Peer Mediation Programs: The Western Justice Center Experience. Linnemeier reports that the Western Justice Center (WJC) helped set up peer mediation programs several years ago at a Pasadena California middles school. The program included "both traditional and non-traditional leaders (those who might lead others in questionable directions)," because it is non-traditional leaders "who potentially have the most influence with their peers. Additionally, they "are channeling their leadership skills in productive directions." Other benefits noted include: providing participants with more widely-applicable problem-solving skills; reduction in anti-social behaviors in students receiving training; creation of a "positive moral climate" at the school and "reduce[d] reliance on authoritarian approaches to conflict resolution;" 35% decrease in school violence; and 45% reduction in suspensions.
Of course, a major challenged observed in growing any of these successful programs elsewhere is, as always, "deep funding cuts." The challenge for the innovative and energetic ADR practitioner will be to persuade and demonstrate to school administrators how ADR systems can actually save money over time.
If you are interested in neutral services
such as arbitration, mediation or contract ALJ services, for school, education or
other matters, please contact Pilar Vaile, P.C. at (505) 247-0802, or info@pilarvailepc.com.
