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Excerpted from Chapter 2: Mediating Conflicts Involving Harassment: An Overview in The School Mediator's Field Guide: Prejudice, Sexual Harassment, Large Groups and Other Daily Challenges by Richard Cohen
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Checklist for Mediating Conflicts Involving Harassment
Intake
- Provide (or make sure parties are provided with) three fundamentals:
- Support
- Information
- Choice
- Do not draw conclusions about a case until after speaking with both parties
Conducting intake interviews with victims:
- Ask victims whether and in what manner they would like the harasser to be contacted
- If victims would not like the harasser contacted, explore their hesitation and attempt to calm their fears
- Remember: It is ultimately the victim's decision whether to mediate or not
Conducting intake interviews with harassers:
- If the victim would like the harasser contacted, invite the harasser to speak in private, keeping even the invitation confidential
- Ask open-ended questions at the start of the interview to encourage the harasser to speak; wait to explain the victim's concerns
- Build rapport with the harasser
- Explore the extent to which the harasser feels responsibility for his or her behavior (but leave the assigning of blame to the administration)
- Clarify that the harasser is not exempt from disciplinary consequences if he or she participates in mediation
Informing administrators and parents:
- Balance parties' rights to privacy with administrators' and parents' rights to be informed about certain kinds of behavior
- Ask the victim and the harasser whether they would like the administration and parents to know about the conflict
- Defer to parties' wishes whenever possible
- If administrators need to be informed despite parties' wishes, invite parties to present the situation to the administration nevertheless
- It is always the administration's responsibility to contact parents
- Offer to help students communicate with their parents
Five Criteria For Deciding Whether Mediation Is Appropriate For Conflicts Involving Harassment:
- The degree of harassment (including its severity, persistence and pattern)
- The victim's desired outcomes
- The harasser's attitude toward trying to resolve and understand the conflict
- The victim's psychological strength, self-confidence, and ability to communicate needs verbally
- The school's policy and procedures
Coordinators can make a case more appropriate for mediation by:
- Referring students to the administration prior to mediation
- Encouraging victims to meet with a counselor or student support group
- Allowing parties (especially victims) to have an advocate accompany them during the process
- Having the victim mediate separately with the key individuals involved in a group conflict
- If, on balance, it appears that parties would benefit from participation in mediation, it is usually worth the associated risks
Mediator Selection
- Provide advanced training to mediators
- Use mediators who share key characteristics with, or "mirror," the parties
- Choose experienced student and adult mediators
During the Session
- Focus the session on "righting a wrong" as well as resolving a conflict
- Encourage parties to speak directly to one another when appropriate
- Focus on facilitating dialogue more than formulating concrete agreements
- Terminate the process whenever it appears to be reinforcing victims' traumas
- Use private sessions when necessary
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