I. Introduction

 Walton High School in the Bronx, New York was ranked fourth most violent high school in the City of New York by the New York City Police Department in 1999. Student suspensions for gang-related and other violence-related issues had risen for the third consecutive year. I set out to reduce the rise in student suspensions as well as have Walton High removed from the New York Police Department’s list of top 10 most violent schools list.
Statistics obtained from the Bronx, New York Superintendent’s office shows Walton High School had a higher number of suspensions than other similar schools in the Bronx. Stakeholders have stated that Walton had difficulty attracting teachers and students to the school due to their reputation as a haven for gang members. Deans and safety agents reported an increase not only in gang-related incidents but also in an increase in the number of gangs on campus, including an increase in female gang membership. Walton High School is an unzoned academic comprehensive high school. The population of approximately 64.8% Hispanic, 28.8 % African American, 1.1% Caucasian and 5.3% Asian/other. The gender makeup of the school population is 55% female and 45%, male.
Each year Walton High School students’ population is made up of over 1000 immigrant students from 15 nations who enter with varying degrees of preparedness for high school. Nearly one-quarter of the students are limited English proficiency eligible. Special Education students make up almost 9.4% of the student body and 90% of the student population is eligible for free lunch. Walton High School operates at 180% capacity. The dropout rate is 13.4%. The new zero-tolerance policies have not been effective at Walton High School. Suspensions and gang activities continued to rise. The protocol has been not to engage gang members in conflict resolution settings as some administrators believe it gives the gang members’ legitimacy and unwanted attention.

II. Narrative as to the creation and/or maintenance of the learning setting

 Walton High School is located in a low-income area of the Bronx. There are 18 Security Agents and 17 Deans responsible for all aspects of safety and discipline. I became a dean of security after I was seen breaking up a fight between 2 gang members. The assistant principal asked, “Hi, would you like to be a dean?” I had no idea what a dean is or what the responsibilities were, I said yes because of the moment. And as a teacher in my third year at the school, I was hoping to stay and wanted to make “friends” in high places. Several years later the Assistant Principal resigned, and I had developed a reputation of being able to connect with the gang members and many of the students that were in trouble often. I intentionally sought out the leadership of the gangs to get a grasp on the latest rumors and to get a “heads up” on when a potentially explosive situation may arise in the hopes of trying to de-escalate the situation. I was asked to become the Assistant Principal of security and administration. There were no other applicants for the position due to the nature of the work and the low pay. I wanted to tackle the gang issue immediately and find a way to remove ourselves off the top 10 most violent schools list. I began to identify teachers that had great relationship skills and that were popular with students and I explained the goals and vision. I asked them to visualize what we can become instead of accepting our status quo. I asked these teachers to help me identify who the “major players” were in terms of which students were the “shot callers” or leaders of gangs/cliques or crews on campus. I knew most of them and had already established relationships with these students on my own. The teachers and I had several meetings and after identifying the leadership and those students that are influential in the gangs we began to discuss which of these student leaders would be receptive to sit down with us and other gang members. One teacher asked, “Why would they want to sit down and talk with each other when all they do is beat each other up.” My response at the time was that all gang members wanted the same thing-to not get “jumped” or physically assaulted in our hallways and stairways.
My strategies for obtaining our goals included the following steps:
1. Involve receptive teachers- I had to identify and involve the teachers that students trusted most. They would be excellent sources of information and would be most able to talk a student into sitting down for a conflict resolution/mediation session.
2. Identify the gangs, members and influencers within the gangs
3. Training in conflict resolution/mediation for select staff members
4. Train receptive gang members and other students to become peer mediators
5. Evaluate the results

III. Critique of reform effort in light of reform purposes

 The staff members that agreed to participate and I were undergoing a paradigm shift. There was a change in our mindset. I believed it was in everyone’s best interest to include gang members in the conflict resolution circle, even though it was against protocols. There are 3 dimensions to leadership: 1. What is? 2. What should be? 3. What can be? (Austin, 1993) At Walton High School the rate of suspensions and gang-related incidents kept rising even though we installed thousands of dollars worth of airport type scanners/x-ray machines and hired several new security agents. What I believed could be is that the incidents could drop if we showed those involved in such incidents(gang members) how to resolve conflict. No one can argue that we should teach young people how to resolve conflict, however, once you mention that the youths are in gangs many of the educators and administrators refuse to include these students. Amongst the reasons for not wanting to get involved was the fact that it was against protocol to involve members of gangs in conflict resolution sessions

IV. Policies changed and/or created as a result of reform efforts

 While it is a requirement to have a conflict resolution program in the schools the unspoken protocol is that these sessions are not to include gang members. This is, however, unenforceable for several reasons: a) schools insist that gang members no insignia on campus and many gang members identities are unknown; b) claims to gang membership among high school students may be specious, with many students calling gang membership that are actually not members of gangs and gang members hiding their membership in gangs and schools (c) gang structures are relatively amorphous, making many students’ gang identity problematic; (d) oftentimes in mediations, especially at the outset, no evidence exists that a particular conflict is related to gang activity
However, at Walton High School, where gang presence is high, to deny students access to the process of nonviolent conflict resolution because they are members of a gang seem counterproductive. Therefore, my strategy was designed to assist the extension of conflict resolution and conflict negotiation skills to known gang members and to recruit gang members as peer mediators.

V. Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

After only one year of implementing the “PeaceFest” initiative, superintendent suspensions, those suspensions for the most egregious offenses usually involving violence, dropped by 30% and not a single incident of gang-related incidents was recorded for the fall semester. Walton high school went from the 4th most violent high school in the Bronx to being removed from the New York City Police Department’s top 10 most violent schools list. Suspensions have dropped for 3 consecutive years