Success in conferring with hostile parents is a result of careful planning, understanding human behavior, and frontline experience. This article encourages principals to develop the necessary skills to handle emotion-charged encounters with alienated, calculative, and committed parents. (MLH)

Authorized by Title X of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Community Relations Service (CRS) is a mediation service dealing with community racial disputes. CRS has spent much of the past three years working in Los Angeles and is now handling problem solving in multiracial, multicultural schools in Stockton, California. Workshop participants usually…

Notes that conflict occurs often on a high school newspaper staff. Outlines six common conflicts: editors versus staff; editors versus the teacher; editors versus photographers; staff versus the principal; editors versus editors; and staff versus faculty/readers. Discusses ways of resolving these conflicts, such as collaborative revision,…

Adversarial approaches perpetuate disciplinary problems without solving them. Conferencing is a group conflict-resolution process that focuses on repairing relationships when offenders admit wrongdoing. When kids take responsibility for their bad behavior, they realize they can control their actions-the foundation for developing self-efficacy and…

This manual is designed to teach young people about planning a conference and to offer advice to the adults working with them on providing support. It is based on a successful sex education conference sponsored by the Youth Action Program (East Harlem, New York), which was planned and conducted by young people with minimal adult leadership. Part 1…