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St. Anthony Jr. Sr. High School is proud to have students involved in the Peer Mediation Program. This program allows trained students to help solve other student’s conflicts on campus. Research shows that peers helping peers can sometimes be more successful than adult intervention. We embraced this belief and chose to train a handful of students who will help keep St. Anthony Jr. Sr. School a peaceful place! This program was initiated thanks to past Personal Counselor Sr. Leone Drexler. However, in time, the program dwindled away and it was no more. Recently, Peer Mediator Moderators Mr. Tafao (Director of Campus Ministry) and Ms. Chong (current Personal Counselor) revived the program and it is now in its second year.

Students were either chosen by the Peer Mediator Moderators or volunteered on their own. Once the group of students were locked in and accepted the Peer Mediator title, they were exposed to a three day training session through Maui Mediation Services of Maui.  After the three day training they received certificates of completion and were ready for action! Mediating their peers takes practice and confidence, therefore, moderators chose to practice, practice, and practice before giving them a real conflict to mediate. Students meet multiple times per month to learn about listening and paraphrasing skills.  They practice looking for the root cause of the conflict. Once that is completed, mediators help both parties come up with a solution that works best for them and they agree through a signed contract. We practice this process through a “fish bowl” technique where the students mediate a fictional conflict while the other mediators observe and later give feedback.  

Once ready, these students will be called upon to help mediate conflict on campus. Students involved in Peer Mediation must be in good academic standings, because they may be called out of class at any time to mediate. Please support us as we strive to make this a safe, healthy and peaceful Jr./Sr. High School. We are proud to be `Ohana and as you know from your own personal life, `Ohana’s can run into difficulties. However, our goal is to teach young people that violence and revenge is NOT the solution to conflict. It IS possible to learn to understand one another and to hear one another out.