Increasingly, children who learn good conflict-management skills find themselves negotiating with kids who would rather fight--even over minor matters like cutting into line, taking a pencil, or touching a classmate's desk. A Pittsburgh teacher has worked to create a physically and emotionally safe classroom and devised a Students Against Violence…

Some violence prevention programs do not work because they are poorly targeted, provide materials without implementation strategies, apply neighborhood methods to school settings, and project unrealistic notions about the social forces underlying violence. Schools cannot eliminate all conflict but should go beyond violence prevention to create a…

Summarizes violence prevention programs and activities in five urban school systems. Chicago schools have hired their own security staffs, use cameras in hallways, and provide character education, peer mediation, and mentoring sessions. Buffalo and Memphis schools stress tight security measures and weapons confiscation. Baltimore schools and…

A suburban Pennsylvania school district is increasingly using family group conferences to address incidents of misconduct and violence. Through a reintegrative shaming process, family group conferences allow offenders to face their victims, move past their inappropriate behavior, discard the offender label, make amends, and return to the community…

Role playing is part of a violence-prevention program for sixth graders in Richmond (Virginia) Public Schools called Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP). The district includes nine middle schools with about 2,000 students; 95% are African Americans. The program stresses personal responsibility, respect for others, and a peaceful future…

Violence against children is increasing; so is random student violence and disruptive behavior in classrooms. Instead of fortifying their gates, schools must teach children alternatives to violence and how to make better choices. A "humane highway" can be constructed by reducing cynicism, welcoming all students, replacing reward- and…

Although traditional discipline procedures (expulsion, time-out rooms, suspensions, and scolding) teach students to depend on authority figures to resolve conflicts, the Peacemaker Program teaches children how to mediate disputes and negotiate solutions themselves. To regulate their own behavior, students must have opportunities to make decisions…

The key to violence prevention lies in shaping children's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors before violence becomes an automatic manifestation of their anger. The Johnson Institute's Respect and Protect program promotes respect for everyone and a systemwide ethos (violence as unacceptable), targets enabling behaviors, distinguishes between…