Too often, the Philadelphia school system makes headlines because of student violence rather than achievement. But a group of Penn Law students is trying to stem the violence and encourage schoolchildren to resolve conflicts peacefully.

The student volunteers used mediation as a tool in their efforts for Project PEACE, a government program begun in Pennsylvania in 1999 after the mass shootings at Columbine High School.

One of the participants, Marium Jabyn, LL.M.’07, a native of the Maldives, spent four days last March offering mediation training to students at James Rhoads Elementary School in West Philadelphia. She didn’t know what to expect when she walked into the classroom. When she worked with schoolchildren back home, they were combative. So she worried that the Rhoads students might not like outsiders telling them what to do.

Previous Page

Next Page