A Story of Transformation
Sheryl and Julie* are students at the same high school. Sheryl and several other students attended a school hockey game at which Sheryl was seen flirting with one of the hockey players -- a boyfriend of one of Julie’s friends. The next day, as Julie and Sheryl passed each other in the hall, Julie threatened Sheryl with a knife in an attempt to warn her about messing with her friends. The following day, Julie was arrested and charged with threatening and possession of a weapon. She and her mother subsequently attended court numerous times. On one of these occasions, the Crown Attorney referred her case to CMS-D for mediation.Two mediators met first with Julie and her mother, and then with Sheryl and her mother. During these meetings, the participants heard more about the process and told the mediators their perspective on what happened. Everyone agreed to move forward to a mediation session.
During the mediation, Julie's mother shared that she had been humiliated by what her daughter had done and by her arrest. Her life had been disrupted and her employment was in jeopardy because of the many times she had had to attend court with her daughter. Sheryl's mother was ashamed of her daughter's behaviour at the hockey game and had imposed strict conditions on her social life. She also feared that her daughter could be stabbed by Julie or other students.
Julie expressed remorse for the incident and said she wanted to apologize to Sheryl but had not been able to due to an imposed ‘no contact’ order. She also assured everyone that this would not happen again. Both girls expressed how much they liked each other prior to the incident and agreed they would like to have a friendly relationship again. Everyone was very satisfied with the process, and felt the mediation helped them move beyond the incident.
*Names and some details of this story have been changed.