Rochester city schools are putting more energy behind an alternative center for conflict resolution, and a “hub” of mediators is shaping a new district-wide approach to violence prevention.
Deputy Superintendent Ruth Turner said in a school board meeting this week that the ROC Restorative H.U.B., now located on Costar Street, was a response to a spike in community violence in the wake of pandemic shutdowns — a local and national trend.
“Community violence was entering our schools and schools were becoming greatly overwhelmed by the need for high level mediations, which take a significant amount of time to coordinate and a high level of skill to be able to do them,” Turner said on Tuesday. “So this initiative has been really helpful in helping our community and schools by allowing us to engage in this process with them.”
Mediators at the center work with people involved in a conflict to come up with their own solutions to a problem. The approach is called solution-focused mediation and Turner said it’s also about shifting mindsets to be more “future-oriented.”
“This process is very different than what most folks are used to,” Turner said. “Solution focused mediation is an approach to conflict resolution that centers on practical, future-oriented solutions, rather than dwelling on the past or the cause of the conflict. We do this by emphasizing the strengths of all parties involved.”
The program slowly rolled out last September. By October there was a referral system in place.
In its first year, the HUB held about 200 meditations for more than 500 students. About two thirds were female students. Out of all students who went through a mediation, about 30 repeated the process related to different conflicts that arose, Turner said.
While it doesn’t replace suspensions, the HUB can be a way to interrupt repeated long-term suspensions for some students, she said.
"Without that, what we're seeing is that these same students were being suspended, suspended oftentimes for the same beef," she said. “We can try to squash and resolve the conflict so it's not just happening over and over again.”
The program has expanded to partner with the Regional Transit System, and address student suspensions from RTS buses. According to the district, 450 city bus drivers have been trained in de-escalation.
“Oftentimes these trainings are done at 5:30 in the morning, because that's the only time the bus drivers can do them” she said, “But it's been really, really meaningful for us to be able to do that."
