TRAINING GIVES KIDS ALTERNATIVE TO FIGHTING

Editor's note: Because the students quoted in this story are juveniles, their real names are not being used.

One wrong move can change your life, as three IPS students found out. They ended up at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center after fighting with classmates.

Tom, 17, a student at Howe Academy, said he landed in the detention center after a fight in the cafeteria.

Teachers broke up his initial quarrel with another student, he said, but then that other student spit in Tom's face, he said, so "I went after him."

Police Lt. John Stiegelmeyer, who oversees the 87-member force at Indianapolis Public Schools, says fighting "has always been a big problem in IPS," although there are fewer incidents so far this school year. Still, these students say it's not unusual to see a fight at their schools.

Stiegelmeyer says kids have to learn to talk instead of fight.

"That's the biggest problem we have at IPS: They don't communicate with each other. They listen to one side of a story, and they don't listen to the other side of the story."

Project Peace is a peer mediation training program designed to help elementary and middle-school students learn to resolve differences peacefully. Located at the Peace Learning Center in Eagle Creek Park, it is sponsored by the Indiana Department of Education with support from the Indiana State Bar Association and the Indiana Attorney General's Office.

IPS students have been participating in Project Peace for seven years, ever since Duncan Pat Pritchett became the district's superintendent. He believes it has made an impact.

"When I became superintendent, I looked at our expulsion statistics, and we had too many children fighting and people getting expelled for fighting. We knew that we had to put something in place that was going to reduce fights in schools, and that's where we came in with Project Peace.

"We had a few schools already doing it, and within six months after I became superintendent, we decided we were going to put that in every IPS school, which means having to get lawyers to work with each school to help train the facilitators. But it's made a big difference," he said.

Every IPS fourth-grader goes to the Peace Center to learn how to handle conflicts peacefully. Two years later, IPS sixth-graders travel to Trafalgar to participate in a team-building experience called "peace camp." The idea is to give all students two exposures to mediation before they get into middle school.

"The real serious fights happen in middle school and high school, so we wanted to start it in elementary school. It seems to be working," Pritchett explained.

However, not every middle- or high-school student has been through Project Peace, either because they are new to the district or haven't been allowed to go because of disciplinary reasons.

Consequences for fighting in IPS schools range from a conference with a student's parents to detention, suspension and expulsion.

"My particular favorite is Saturday school -- 'cause nobody likes to give up a Saturday," Pritchett said.

"Our policy is, if there is no injury, then we let the administration handle it," Stiegelmeyer said. "But if there's injury where there's bleeding or things of that nature, or a student still won't quit fighting and maybe a teacher might get shoved against a wall or something like that, then we automatically arrest them."

Students arrested for fighting are transported either to the juvenile center or, if they're over age 17, to the Marion County Jail.

All the students interviewed for this story had been in trouble for fighting before.

"I've been here (the juvenile center) so many years, since I was like 9, 10," said Bill, 16, from Arlington High School. "It's stressful."

Stiegelmeyer says that gossip instigates 90 percent of school fights.

"A lot of kids will start rumors, say, 'Hey, this kid said this or that,' and they're standing back and the other two are getting into a fight. This kid doesn't get into trouble because all he did was, you know, got it going. They're the ones who suffer the consequences."

Tom said he fought back because he was provoked.

"I got kind of a reputation that I don't take a lot of crap. I'm straightforward with people. It's just when somebody spits in your face, that's one of the lowest insults," he said.

Bill and Tanya, 13, a student at Shortridge Middle School, said their "victims" had challenged them to fight, and they responded. All three felt like they were not the only ones to blame, but no one else was arrested.

None of the three students interviewed at the juvenile center had participated in any part of Project Peace. Said Tanya, "If you got in a fight, you weren't allowed to go. If you disrespected the teachers, you weren't allowed to go."

Project Peace or not, students need to learn how to respond to conflict.

"If you hit back, you're the one who ends up in trouble," Pritchett said. "Find ways to solve problems without fighting, because fighting does not resolve it. It just shows who was stronger that particular day or who could beat up who. It doesn't necessarily make the issue go away that caused the fight."

"Report it to a faculty member, someone you trust, to one of our police officers," advised Stiegelmeyer.

The detainees all expressed remorse for fighting. Bill said his mom and teacher were upset, but he hurt his girlfriend most. "I promised her I wouldn't get locked up no more, I wouldn't do nothing to hurt her feelings no more," he said.

Similarly, Tanya said she would control her temper. "I'm gonna walk away from a fight because I don't want to be back in here."

Tom agreed that the consequences for fighting are just too high.

"I missed half my football season in here. (But it's) the little stuff I miss the most, just being able to sit and watch TV at home. I learned a lot."

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Andrea Zeek, 16.

REPORTERS: Keenen Brannon, 10; Steven Thompson, 13.

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