Columbia Middle School students are learning productive ways to deal with conflict and resolve it peacefully through a class called The Peaceful Bulldogs.
Since last year, The Peaceful Bulldogs have been meeting during FLEX time to learn about restorative justice and how to mediate conflict among their peers. Since the start of the program, more than 60 students have been trained in peer mediation, learning concepts such as the nature of conflict, conflict as an opportunity, the nature of peace, responses to conflict, and the importance of communication.
“Learning about conflict opens the knowledge and understanding of how we can not only fix conflicts but prevent them as well,” said Andrea, seventh grade.
Natasha, a sixth-grade student, appreciates that her school has the program. “I thought it was nice that there is a class that cares about things like conflict and kindness,” she said.
The students have conducted 12 peer mediations since The Peaceful Bulldogs program began and said that the class has given them tools to be able to help their peers.
“If someone wants someone to talk to, it really helps when you know what to do,”
said Aliyana, seventh grade.
“If someone wants to talk to me about a problem that they’re having, I know what questions to ask them,” added Yair, sixth grade.
Students have found that the skills they learned through The Peaceful Bulldogs are useful both at school and away from school.
“It has helped me with conflicts I have outside of school. Now I know what to do to prevent a conflict from happening. If a conflict does happen, I know how to stop it,” said Mackenzie, sixth grade. Her classmate Riley agreed. “It helped me prevent conflicts inside school, outside of school, and everywhere,” said Riley.
