Unit
2
Why
Resolve Conflict?
Goals:
The students will…
- Understand the reality of violence in schools.
- Understand why learning about peace is important and become interested in learning about nonviolent conflict resolution.
- See how small problems can escalate to large problems.
- Think of ways to keep violence like this from happening in their school.
- See that there are alternatives to violence like what happened at Jonesboro.
- Apply
Jonesboro and Youth Crime Watchers to their own lives.
- Accomplish the personal goal for your classroom for
today:________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The volunteers will…
- Discuss the violence in schools and the ways some students are trying to make it better.
- Lead the students in thought-provoking, insightful discussion.
Materials:
- Scripts for Jonesboro activity, including questions.
- Youth Crime Watchers scripts.
Methods:
I. Opening Activity: Review Unit 1 (5 minutes)
II. Real World Violence and the Importance of Peace: Jonesboro School Shooting
(40 minutes)
III. Real World Peace: Youth Crime Watchers (20 minutes)
IV. Closing Activity: Which Would You Choose? (5 minutes)
Preparation:
- Familiarize yourself with the scripts from Jonesboro and Youth Crime Watchers.
I. Opening
Activity: Review Unit 1
(estimated time: 5 minutes)
Volunteer Leading this activity
_________________________________________
Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________
Note: If you
prefer an activity, you can choose one from Appendix 2 to do instead. However, this is a long lesson, so you may
want to choose a quick activity.
Ask the students what they remember from last week. Make sure to review:
- Escalation and De-escalation (cover the definitions of the two words and go over some examples)
- Conflict vs. Fight
- Conflict Tree
- Little issues can grow into larger ones.
- Conflicts have causes and effects.
- Sometimes effects are new causes.
- Conflict Staircase
- Your action determines whether you move up or down the conflict staircase – that is, whether you make the conflict worse or better
- If you avoid escalators, then there won’t be new causes of conflicts and the conflict will get better.
- Cooperation (an example of de-escalation from the Human Pretzel)
II. Real World
Violence and the Importance of Peace:
Jonesboro School Shooting
(estimated time: 40 minutes)
Volunteer Leading this activity
_________________________________________
Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________
Activity Goals:
- Understand the reality of violence in schools.
- Understand why learning about peace is important
- Become interested in learning about nonviolent conflict resolution.
- See how small problems can escalate into large problems.
- Think of ways to keep violence like this from happening in the students’ school.
One of the first school shootings happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1997. It is likely that the students are too young to remember this event, but they can probably remember other examples of school shootings.
It is important to
remember that the students are often very moved by this activity: they are
usually sad and may be scared. After
talking about it, make sure to end on a positive note, where the students know
what they could do to prevent something like this from happening in their
school.
It is recommended that for this activity you split the class into two or three groups depending on how many teachers you have, since this gives each student more time to participate in the discussion and often cuts down on classroom noise. In this case, each teacher leads the lesson independently.
Begin the activity.
- Explain briefly what happened at Jonesboro.
- The
Jonesboro shooting was done by two boys, aged 11 and 13. Four 11 and 12 year old sixth grade
girls and one teacher were shot and killed. No one thought these boys would ever do such a thing, and
no one knew why they did it. The
newspapers were reporting that it was over a girl that one boy liked who
wouldn’t go out with him.
- Hand out 10 scripts from various people who were involved with the Jonesboro shooting.
- If
there are fewer than 10 students in your group, hand out more than one
script to some students.
- Hand out questions to 5 student volunteers.
- Ask each student to read their script
aloud to the class.
- Out of respect to the people involved
in this tragedy, it is important to keep the students quiet and paying
attention during this time.
Normally, this is not hard because the students become very
engaged in this activity.
- After each student reads, ask another
student to summarize what the first student said.
- After all the scripts have been read,
ask the students if they have any thoughts
- If this begins a discussion that you
want to follow through with, proceed and skip the discussion below. Make sure to cover what the questions
cover in this discussion.
Continue with a
discussion.
- Ask the students assigned to questions
to read their questions aloud to the class, answering each question before
proceeding to the next one.
- Chances are, students will be so
interested that there won’t be a need to ask and answer all the questions
in order to have discussion. The
goal of the questions is to create discussion; if you don’t get to all
the questions, just make sure to cover all the important information.
- Some important points to get across
during the discussion are:
- There was not one cause of this
tragedy. Many factors were
involved, and therefore there were many opportunities to stop it.
- This tragedy escalated from something
small (teasing, a crush on a girl) to something large.
- Some ways this could have been
prevented are:
- The boys could have controlled their
anger.
- If other students in school were nicer
to the boys (not calling them “total losers” like Candace did), they
might have been better adjusted.
- The grandfather could have locked up
his guns.
- When Mitchell Johnson was going around
saying that everyone who hated him was going to die, students could have
reported this anonymously to a teacher, the principal, the guidance counselor,
or a parent or guardian. (Many
students will suggest that they should tell a friend; it is important to
emphasize that they should tell a responsible adult.)
- The school could have had a metal
detector.
- There could be gun control in the
United States.
- The newspaper and television often
report only the negative. There
are probably many more times that things like this get prevented, but
this doesn’t make the news.
- Before you end the discussion, go
around to the entire class, and ask each student to name the adult that
they could go to if they thought something like this might happen in their
school. Make sure each student comes up with an
answer. The answer could be their
teacher, the principal, a guidance counselor, their parent or guardian,
etc.
III. Real World
Peace: Youth Crime Watchers
(estimated time: 20 minutes)
Volunteer Leading this activity
_________________________________________
Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________
Activity Goals:
- See that there are alternatives to the violence that happened at Jonesboro.
Tell the students
that talking about incidents like what happened at Jonesboro is important, but
since usually only the bad news gets reported, they don’t get a chance to hear
about all the people who make positive choices.
Tell the students
that you will now read three excerpts from statements written by students who
are part of Youth Crime Watchers:
- YCW is a real-life, national group of
students. Middle schools and high
schools all over the country participate in the program. Middle school and high school student
volunteers act as patrol officers to keep the school safe, and they have
been very successful at this.
- (If any students are interested in
learning more – or even starting their own chapter at their school, they
should visit the website at www.ycwa.org).
- These statements are true statements
made by real people.
- Read the excerpts and briefly discuss
what the students think about YCW.
- Why did these students choose this
pathway instead of a pathway like Jonesboro?
- Who can be part of YCW?
- Anyone – even “troubled” kids!
- Do you think something like this is
needed in your school? Is there a
lot of violence in your school?
What do you think about this violence? What can you do about it?
IV. Closing
Activity: Which Would You Choose?
(estimated time: 5 minutes)
Volunteer Leading this activity
_________________________________________
Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________
Activity Goal:
- Apply Jonesboro and Youth Crime Watchers to the students’ lives.
Ask the students,
now that they have been presented with Jonesboro and Youth Crime Watchers, what
they would choose to do if either (a) they felt the way the boys who were
responsible for the shooting felt, or (b) they knew about someone else who felt
like this.
After some students
conclude that they would choose the non-violent option, explain that the rest
of Peace by Peace will be looking at different ways to keep from resorting to
violence.
BEFORE YOU GO:
· Tell the class when you will be visiting next.
· Discuss with the teacher how your group handled the students and ask for his or her critique.
· Make notes for yourself on how the lesson went.
MATERIALS:
- Scripts and questions for Real World Violence and the Importance of Peace: Jonesboro School Shooting
- Enough copies for the actors and teachers; feel free to have extra copies for other students to follow along in their seats.
- Scripts from Real World Peace: Youth Crime Watchers
- Enough copies for the actors and teachers; feel free to have extra copies for other students to follow along in their seats.
My name is Emma Pittman. I am in sixth grade at Westside Middle School.
Mitchell Johnson goes to my school.
A few days before the shooting last week, he was going around saying
that everyone who hated him was going to die.
People said that he was mad at Candace Porter for breaking up with him,
but she was too nice to go out with him.
I thought he was just talking big and bad. No one believed him.
When Mitchell and Drew started shooting at us, it sounded like fireworks,
like part of a play. We didn’t know
what was happening. Then Mrs. Wright,
my teacher, grabbed me and pushed me out of the way. She got hit and just fell.
She saved my life.
My name is Hubert
Bordell. I am the mayor of Jonesboro,
Arkansas. Jonesboro is about 130 miles
away from Little Rock, where President Clinton lived when he was the governor of
Arkansas.
There is no answer
to what happened at Westside Middle School.
If anyone had realized it or thought it might have happened, it wouldn’t
have happened. I’ve been mayor for 12
years, and this is just something we would never dream of in this city.
We’re going to get
through this. It’s just going to take a
healing process. It’s going to take
family. It’s going to take friends
gathering together. And that will
happen.
My name is Scott Johnson, and I am the father of Mitchell Johnson.
When I visited him in jail, Mitchell admitted to me that he and Andrew
Golden pulled the fire alarm and shot at his classmates at Westside Middle
School. He says that he is very sorry
about the shootings.
I cannot believe that my own son, who is only 13, could do this. He seemed so polite, and was very active in
our Church. Why did this happen? I am very sad, and ashamed of my son.
My name is Karen Curtner. I am the pricipal of Westside Middle School,
which has 250 students.
I don’t think anyone can explain what happened at our school on Tuesday,
March 24, at 12:40pm. We have spent a
lot of time talking about why this happened.
I don’t think there is any answer.
During quiet moments, I hear the blood from my heart rush through my ears
when my mind flashes the horrible picture of frightened students. We will never be able to forget what
happened on the playground. And we will
never forget Paige Ann, Stephanie, Brittney, and Natalie, who were all wonderful
girls and great students, or Mrs. Wright, who was a terrific teacher and a real
hero.
My name is Mrs. Herring. Here is a picture of my 12-year-old
daughter, Paige Ann, form her Westside Middle School yearbook.
Paige Ann played
basketball and volleyball at Westside, and she was a great athlete. See that ponytail that she’s wearing in the
picture? Paige Ann was so popular at
school that everyone else wanted to wear ponytails, too.
But last week, my
daughter was shot and killed, along with three other girls, and one of her
teachers. I still can’t believe what
happened. It’s like a nightmare. How could those boys take my daughter away
from me? I don’t know how I will live
without her.
My name is Doug Golden. My grandson, Andrew, goes to Westside Middle
School. His parents are really busy, so
I take care of him a lot. We like to go
hunting together—I have a couple of rifles in my house.
Last week, while I
was at work, I heard about a shooting at Westside. I was really worried about Andrew, so I rushed over to the school
to see if he was okay. At the school, I
got a phone call telling me to go to the jail.
The sheriff said Andrew had pulled the fire alarm and shot
everyone. I couldn’t believe it. He’s only eleven.
When I saw Andrew in
the jail cell, his eyes were fixed like he had just seen something
terrible. I told him he had to tell me
the truth. “Grandpa,” he told me, “I
took your guns.”
My name is Mitchell Wright. My wife, Shannon, was a sixth-grade English
teacher at Westside. She really loved
teaching—she never said anything bad about any of her students. Here’s a picture of us with our son, Zane,
who is two and a half.
Last week, when
those boys started shooting at everyone on the playground, Shannon pushed aside
one of her students, to shield her from the bullets. Shannon was hit, and she was killed.
“Tell Mitchell and
Zane that I love them very much,” people heard her say, as she was dying.
My name is Amber
Vanoven. I’m eleven years old, and I’m
in sixth grade at Westside Middle School.
This is a yearbook
picture of my best friend, Natalie Brooks.
Last week, the fire alarm went off at our school. We all walked outside and they started
shooting. Everybody screamed. And then I saw Natalie get shot twice. I saw her lying there, and I just started
running.
Natalie was so
smart. She always got A’s and she used
to invite me over to look through the telescope in her backyard. I really miss her. What will I do without her?
My name is Ron
Crast, and I am 43 years old. I sell
propane (a kind of gasoline) in Jonesboro.
I don’t have any children
myself, but I knew all of the victims—all of them. I knew the boys’ families, too.
Here are some pictures from the memorial service for the victims, which
I went to a few days ago. There were
about 10,000 people in the audience.
I don’t know what to
think about the shooting. And no matter
what they tell you, nobody else does either.
My name is Candace
Porter. I am 11 years old, and I’m in
sixth grade at Westside Middle School.
Here’s a picture of me at a basketball game, with my team, the Lady
Warriors.
I got hurt last week
when two boys shot at me during a fire drill, but the doctors say I’m going to
be okay. My mom says that I’m really
lucky, and I know that she’s right. I
can’t stop crying about the kids who died.
It’s just so hard to believe.
Those boys were
total losers. One of them, Mitchell
Johnson, told everyone that I broke up with him. Now a lot of people are saying that he shot everyone to get back
at me—I even saw that story on the news.
But I never would have gone out with him. He was a real jerk.
Question #1: Who do each of you
think caused this tragedy?
Question #2:
How was each person affected by this tragedy in a different way?
Question #3:
Who suffered the most? The
least?
Question #4:
Is violence a problem in most schools?
Question #5:
Was this tragedy preventable? If
so, how can communities and schools prevent something like this from
happening?
Youth Crime
Watchers
1. By Orelous Hall III, from Ridgeview High School in Clay County, Florida
I remember eighth
grade as the most violent year that I have seen at my school. During that year
there was a particular week during which there were three fights a day. That
was before there were any crime/violence programs or clubs. That same year I
decided to get involved.
Many people think
that to be involved in a community help program you have to be a
"nerd" or "loser," but we have proven time and time again
that this is not true. Athletes, honor students, and former troublemakers were
all involved. The thing that made all this come together was each of us having
the common goal of making things better for students who were presently
attending the school and those in future classes to feel safe from a Jonesboro
or Columbine incident at our school. Each of us know that it all starts with
the small incident that leads up to the large one. I feel good each and every
day knowing that I am a part of what keeps the school together.
Though our school
is now the safest in the county we are not going to stop because we feel a
little at ease. If you think that you should stop working out because you get
some muscle you're wrong, because you shouldn't stop if you want to stay in
shape you have to keep exercising and that's what we're doing.
2. From an
interview with Jonathan Bergueiro.
"I never
thought YCW would be such an impact on me. I was never the role model student.
I was always skipping school. I really did not see the point of staying in
school, and because of that, I failed. YCW and the patrol gave me the reason to
stay in school. YCW has given me better school grades. You have to keep your
grades up to be in Crime Patrol. Before I had straight F's; now I have mostly
B's and some C's.
"In addition,
I do not have a police record because I am lucky. I was not always on the good
side of the law. When I started in YCW, I basically took a strong look at my
life and saw that I was not on the path which I wanted to be taking. It made me
think twice about what I did on the street. That is why and how YCW changed my
life."
What impact has
YCW made in the lives of people I interact with?
"I'm home
earlier than before. Now I'm drug free - no alcohol, no smoking. My mom likes
that. My friends and family see what I was before and say I've done a complete
180 in my life. They've seen how I've changed. Before, I got into fights; now,
I limit myself, talk my way out of it, and stop fights. My little sister
doesn't see me getting into trouble as much. She sees me coming to school,
setting an example."
What about YCW
made that impact?
"The main
reason - people basically look up to you. Everybody knows you and sees you. It
makes you popular, but for a different reason. I actually stay in school. It's
something to stay in school for."
3. By Sophia Campbell from Norland Middle School in Miami, Florida
"I can definitely say that YCW gave me direction. I got involved initially because one of my friends in the seventh grade got killed. I had to make a decision about which way to go. I got involved with YCW because it's a program that tries to change the environment that kids live in and that gives kids something to do and look forward to. Since then, I've continued to do it because I believe in the program and I love young people. I can tell them what it's done for me, how it's changed my life, and what they can gain - like speaking with Janet Reno, networking, meeting a lot of people, and getting hands-on experience in my new field, public relations."