“Mooresville and Iredell County schools are partnering with Piedmont Mediation Center, Inc., to offer a different way to solve conflicts like bullying, risky behavior, sexting, and truancy.” This is not about mediation. It is about “having the children and teens understand who they hurt and how. Goals for the program include “providing a sense of justice while reducing crime and cost.”

There has been a lot of success in working with kids in this kind of way. The mediator is used as the first point of contact for the teen in trouble. “The Restorative Justice program has no negotiation; if the child is not willing to acknowledge the harm and take steps toward making it right, this is not the program for them.”

“With the program, the child and parent would have a pre-conference with a counselor from the mediation center, talking about the infraction as well as the program and seeing if it’s appropriate, which Masiello says it typically is.”

Read more here.