By Alex Vickery, Reporter
Peer mediators will attend their second training session on Nov. 11 at Harter Middle School.
The sessions train the students how to be a mediator and are being led by counselors Anna Lamica and Cyndi Violett, social workers Nancy Ryan and Jean Ryan-Meyers, and psychologist John Markovich.
During the first session, which was held on Oct. 20, mediators learned how to do a mediation session and what to do next in every type of situation.
“They won’t ever wonder ‘what should I do next?'” Lamica, peer mediation sponsor, said.
The mediators also get a feel for what it’s like to be a disputant, by playing games using mediators and disputants.
“[The peer mediation session is] growing every year,” Lamica said.
The club is also getting more requests for sessions. Instead of getting a referral from a teacher, students could go to a peer mediation session and work out their problems instead.
“I think [peer mediation] helps because you are working out your problems with people your own age,” sophomore Kelsey Gould said.
The mediators who have already been through the training session think mediation helps because it’s easier to relate to your peers than teachers.
“Instead of teacher-to-student, it’s student-to-student,” junior Logan Vines said.