Elementary kids use peer mediation to help one another

Fifth-grade students Terrence and Izebella hope to help solve a minor disagreement between two fellow students.  

“Thank you for coming to mediation, we are here to help you solve the problem together,” Terrence reads from a prepared script.

This isn’t your average group of elementary students, they are Oak Grove Elementary Peer Mediators who have been called to help.   

“We were helping two people solve their problem because they couldn’t solve it on their own,” 10-year- old Izebella said.

Vera Perez has been the bilingual school counselor at Oak Grove for eight years.

She formed the program as a way to encourage her fifth-graders to help solve or mediate minor conflicts around campus.

“A couple years ago when I joined Oak Grove, there was no type of program to help the kids. We get a lot of referrals,” Perez said.

She said the goal is for students to be able to talk to one another.

“To use communication skills as a way of being more proactive on their own situations versus always depending on an adult to take care of it. What we learned is that kids tend to listen to kids more than they will ever listen to an adult,” Perez added.

The students are specially trained and mediate twice a week.

“We do it on Mondays and Fridays at 1:15; we pull from specials. They pick up the children, bring them and they mediate with them,” she said.

10-year-old Sadie is one of the peer mediators.

“We sit them down so they are all comfortable. We just ask them questions about the problem so we can get both sides of the story and try to get more details. After that, we try to make them solve the problem best that they can,” the fifth-grader said.

Mediators like Julissa are also ready to step in when their expertise is needed. 

“Today, I saw two kids who were name calling and so I stepped in and told them that we are all friends here and we don’t name call,” Julissa said.

Oak Grove is a campus that adapts to students’ individual needs.

Ms. Perez said the students are resilient.

“For our campus, we always say we are a really small school but we have a very high need. Oak Grove is a small school but we have a huge heart. We try so hard to do everything we can for the kids,” she said.

Ms. Perez’s innate passion is inspiring kids like 10-year-old mediator Miranda.

“When I grow up, I want to be…a good person! Here, I learned that a lot of things happen and there’s a bunch of changes but i learn that somehow you are going to have to solve them,” the fifth-grader said.

“My biggest thing is that I want them to have a voice; I want them to learn to advocate for themselves. I feel like if they can learn to communicate and express their feeling, it makes the situation better so what better than for them to learn that technique now in elementary so as they get older, they’ll have that,” Perez said.

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