How to Keep Your Cool At School

Violence Prevention at McClymonds High School

Thirteen years ago Haneefa Olufemi narrowly escaped an arson charge after taking a Bic lighter to a classmate's hair.

Today she is the head of The West Oakland Violence Prevention program that has helped stabilize one of the most troublesome schools in Oakland.

The halls of McClymonds High School in West Oakland are a lot tamer now than they were four years ago.

"When I first got here, this school was at the point where we were able to drink, smoke weed in school and have dice games," said Shimika Breazeale, 17, now a senior. "You had people having sex inside the school, wasn't nobody caring. You had security guards selling drugs outside the school, you had kids selling drugs out of the school."

When Olufemi arrived at McClymonds in 1994, she saw the same things. So she set up shop and got to work, employing techniques that she had been using in several other Oakland Public Schools during the previous 10 years.

Olufemi's experience as a crisis mediator began in the 1980s after the arson charges were dropped and she changed her life from violence to counseling. That was when she became a student mediator.

Today, Olufemi trains young students to be mediators, just as she was trained years ago.

Each day she holds two classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They are structured, but often times they serve as informal discussions on what is going on in the students' lives.

Curious students often drop in, wondering what's going on.

"I'm trying to curb this stigma that we just kick it over here," said Olufemi to a group of visiting students. "What I'm trying to do is give you an alternative to what you do. You can cuss somebody out or you can handle it another way."

The job of the student mediators is fairly straightforward. They must diffuse arguments before they get out of hand. At the heart of their efforts is the "I Message."

"The 'I message' is basically like, we tell the person what they did, describe it and tell them what it made us think, how it made us feel and what we need them to understand," said Cassandra Tribble, 17, one of Olufemi's students. "And when we say it in that way, basically they understand you, they listen to you. They don't interrupt you because you're coming at them in a calm way."

Olufemi uses a mixture of crisis intervention techniques and personal stories to reach her students.

"My mom had died when I was ten years old," Olufemi told a recent class. "So I had a lot of aggression, I had a lot of anger. The biggest feeling that haunted me was I felt abandoned, I felt alone all the time. So, when I felt alone, I started up mischief."

That mischief led her to a crossroads -- she narrowly escaped an arson charge and decided it was time to change. She embraced her role as a student crisis mediator.

In her students, you can catch glimpses of Olufemi's own life as a confused, young girl.

"In my ninth grade year, the first day of school, I got into a fight with a group of girls and I was escorted to (Olufemi) by police," said Breazeale. "I had a real bad reputation to where I didn't really care. I would fight anybody."

But Olufemi took Breazeale in, just like the thirty or so other students she trains each year.

Crisis mediation has provided an educational experience for many of her students, many of whom plan to go on to college.

But it is also not without its dangerous moments.

"The most drastic conflict we had was with a young man," said Breazeale. "I'm not going to mention his name because it's supposed to be confidential. He had a fight with one of the boys on the corner down there and the boy was talking about wanting to shoot him."

Breazeale and other student mediators worked on the case. It involved sitting both sides down and discussing the incident.

"I think I handled it quite well," Breazeale said. "It was hard work. We were here early that morning until almost five o'clock."

Generally, there are enough conflicts at McClymonds to keep the student mediators busy. Olufemi monitors disturbances and assigns cases to various students. The students are then responsible for meeting with those involved and using their training to prevent further violence.

In addition to her role at McClymonds, Olufemi is responsible for coordinating several other programs, including a mentoring program at local elementary schools, a youth advocacy program and a parent's awareness group.

But the bulk of her time is spent with the McClymonds students -- and the students respect her for it.

"Haneefa (Olufemi) is doing a great job. I told her that she couldn't leave until I graduated," said Delanor Ford, 15, a sophomore in her first year as a mediator. "She will tell us, 'I am not you, I'm not a teenager. But, I feel you.' She's real. She can reach everybody, feel everybody."

What Olufemi calls her own "therapy" has had a residual effect on the school. The dice games and smell of marijuana are gone, according to students.

"I love them dearly," said Olufemi of her students. "I see very strong young people who, with the right guidance, with the right resources and with the right exposures can have a very positive impact on the future and also complete their goals."

Even though the program is a success, it is struggling for funding and for support. When Olufemi was first trained, nine Oakland schools participated in the program. Today, there are only three schools in the program.

The West Oakland Violence Prevention program is financed with a $175,000 grant from the Wellness Foundation. Although the foundation has guaranteed funding for the next three years, Olufemi hopes that the Oakland School system will give it the support to continue after that period.

In order to get that support, she believes the program must continue showing that it is relevant in the lives of students.

"We need to get out there, show that we're really doing something," said Olufemi. "We need to show that it is making a positive impact."