Keeping the Peace at Kaposia Elementary

Jake Spitzack Staff Writer

PeaceMaker Minnesota, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing bullying and harassment in schools, recently held its fifth annual charity golf tournament and raised about $20,000 for its endowment for its work in South St. Paul. The fund is now valued at more than $132,000 and is generating annual payouts. In addition to covering a portion of the costs for a peace guide at Kaposia Education Center, portions of the fund may also be used by the school to purchase resources that support PeaceMaker’s mission.

Leah Young began as the peace guide at Kaposia in the fall of 2021 and will return this fall for her third year. She works 10 hours a week helping students work through personal challenges and conflicts with their peers. She is at the school during lunch and recess hours, when many conflicts are known to arise, and occasionally talks with students in those settings, but typically a school aid or teacher will ask her to intervene after they witness an incident between students. When Young addresses an issue with a student, she uses an intervention strategy she’s trained in called collaborative problem solving, which helps students build skills and come up with their own ideas on how to address their problems.

“Kids will come up with all sorts of solutions,” said Young. “You just have to ask them how each would work until you arrive at one that might actually work, and then you help set up a plan with that one.

“It’s a really, really hard time to be a kid,” she added. “They’re coming off a few really tough years and I think their families are too, so you see kids who are coming in really stressed out and oftentimes lacking in skills of conflict resolution and social emotional regulation.”

PeaceMaker Minnesota executive director Dan McNeil said there has been some talk about expanding Young’s hours at Kaposia Education Center, which serves nearly 600 kids. The program at Kaposia dates to 1997, when South St. Paul Public Schools received a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education to underwrite training and staffing of two full-time restorative justice