By Melissa Smith| Sports Writer
Signs advertising “PALS Mediation” are all over campus, but not many know what the peer mediation actually entails. Johnson and MacArthur PALS teamed up this summer and learned how to conduct the meetings, which help students resolve their conflicts with one another.
“A peer leadership group focus on helping peer: peers with issues and problems,” PALS teacher Leah Plumas said. “They help keep peace among them.”
The PALS act as supervisors throughout the process, in which students talk out their issues in a controlled and mature manner.
“Say two friends were in a fight. The third concerned friend fills out a form and requests a mediation with a counselor, who contacts us and talks to a PAL,” Plumas said. “[The PAL leads] the conversation in a constructive way.”
The PALS have been trained to put arguments and conflict to rest by going to the main NEISD building with the MacArthur PALS and being taught by counselors.
“We had our counselor and the Mac counselor helping us, telling us how to deal with situations, and making sure we knew to keep everything confidential,” junior Dani Nelson said. “We also did practice scenarios, with people acting and us learning how to approach and do a mediation.”
The PALS ultimately move participants toward a cathartic resolution.
“We help them find a happy medium,” Nelson said. “We kind of make them sign a contract with each other.”
Students facing issues that have proven difficult to work out solo would be well-advised to approach the PALS.
“It will be very beneficial and help their problems,” Nelson said.
