The Palatine Area League of Women Voters is sponsoring a free program Tuesday in which panelists will describe various conflict-resolution programs being used in local schools, colleges and workplaces.
Fremd High School students will be among those presenting information and demonstrating how teens interact with each other in Township High School District 211’s peer-mediation program.
Schools nationwide over the past decade have increasingly embraced conflict resolution programs in an effort to prevent violence, but parents and residents may not be familiar with what is taught in such programs.
“I think a lot of people don’t know what conflict resolution is, and how it can be beneficial to students,” said Kathy Callahan, program coordinator for the League of Women Voters. “We feel it’s a very interesting topic at this time.”
The forum will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Sundling Junior High School, 1100 N. Smith St., Palatine.
Other speakers will include Marilyn Smith, ombudsman for Harper College in Palatine and research consultant to the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago; Pamela Burkman, a mediator and safe schools coordinator at Gemini Junior High School in Niles; and Steven Shewfelt, a senior consultant with the private Conflict Resolution Strategies firm in Evanston.
