STUDENTS URGED TO PRACTICE POSITIVE PEER PRESSURE

Peers Mediate Some Conflicts

Since peer pressure has such a significant influence on the actions
of teenagers, other teens can play a powerful role in helping fellow
students make safe choices about drugs and violence.

Panelists participating in a St. Augustine Secondary School community
forum on safety, violence and drug prevention said there is great
value in peer mediation and intervention.

The recent panel discussion was organized and presented by the school
council. Parents, students and staff were invited to the community
forum to hear a police officer, youth outreach worker, education
consultant and mediator and students speak about safety, violence and
drug prevention issues. The audience of about 25 also had an
opportunity to ask the panelists questions.

"We have failed to recognize that peer pressure is a dominant force,"
education consultant and mediator Claude Grimmond told those in
attendance. Life for today's youth is much more difficult than it was
for their parent's generation, he added.

Schools and school boards have to find ways to support parents having
difficulty with their children, according to Grimmond. Peer mediation
may provide vital assistance, especially when many teenagers are more
swayed by other teenagers than parental advice.

"We need to make certain that we support peer intervention," Grimmond said.

A peer program is not the panacea, but it is a powerful tool to
address some of the problems parents and their children face, he concluded.

Students Shakira Abubakar, Elizabeth Cooper and Eshan Sharma are
volunteers with St. Augustine's peer mediation program Empower
Student Partnership (ESP). The students speak to other students about
racism, peer pressure and other issues that concern youth. "We
basically just give students a chance to talk to fellow students,"
explained Abubakar.

Peer mediators also undergo conflict resolution training. On
occasion, they mediate disputes between students. Sharma pointed out
mediators do not resolve the conflict, their job is to help the
students involved in the argument find their own solution. "We give
them a chance to actually talk about why they're fighting," Abubakar explained.

Any lasting resolution must be created by the individuals at odds
with each other.

Peel Regional Police Const. Matt Pekeski told parents drugs are a
prevalent reality in high schools across the region and
experimentation is a youthful rite of passage. Parents must be on the
lookout for drug paraphernalia and clothing with drug symbols or
references. Perhaps most important, however, is to insist on meeting
their children's friends.

Whether it is drug use prevention or safety, parents must find time
to engage children and involve themselves in their lives.

"The No. 1 thing is: Know your kids," said Pekeski. "Speak to them.
Know where they are at all times. Know who they are hanging out with."

Parents might be surprised about how little they know about what
children are up to outside the home environment, Grimmond remarked.

It is important for parents to be less reactive and spend more time
talking and listening to their children, he added. "We need to step
back and look at how we work with kids.

"As parents we need to become more proactive," he said.