Thanks for the head's up on this new and important piece of proposed legislation to Patricia Porter, the Texas Conflict Coach in my twitter network = @txconflictcoach

SEC. 3. CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND MEDIATION PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

(a) In General- The Secretary of Education is authorized to make grants to local educational agencies to provide assistance to schools served by the agency that are most directly affected by conflict and violence.

 (b) Model Project- The Secretary shall develop a written model for conflict resolution and mediation written within 90 days and make such model available to any local educational agency that requests such information.

 (c) Authorization of Appropriations- There are authorized to be appropriated $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2010 and such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to carry out the projects under this Act.

This is from newly introduced bill H.R. 4000 - the Conflict Resolution and Mediation Act of 2009.

The proposed Act is based on the following findings:

 

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

 

(a) Findings- The Congress finds the following:

 

 

(1) On Wednesday, October 7, 2009, in a speech detailing the violence that our youth face, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted that, currently, 30 percent of students, or about 1,200,000 students a year, fail to complete high school on time.

(2) The Division of Violence Prevention within the Centers for Disease Control observed that `violence diminishes and destroys the quality of life and freedom of individuals, families and communities . . . young people cannot learn and succeed in life if they are afraid to go to school'.

(3) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find that young people are both the victims and perpetrators of violence, with homicide being the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24.

(4) The U.S. Conference of Mayors states that youth violence is a public health crisis and have declared that `[w]e can't arrest our way out of this problem . . . prevention is the key to long-term success'.

(5) In 2007, of a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9 through 12, 4.2 percent reported being in a physical fight one or more times in the previous 12 months that resulted in injuries that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse.

(6) In a 2007 nationally representative sample of youth in grades 9 through 12 regarding violence-related behaviors, the CDC found--

(A) 12.4 percent reported being in a physical fight on school property in the 12 months preceding the survey, with 16.3 percent of male students and 8.5 percent of female students reported being in a physical fight on school property in the 12 months preceding the survey;

(B) 27.1 percent of students reported having property stolen or deliberately damaged on school property and 5.5 percent did not go to school on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school; and

(C) 5.9 percent reported carrying a weapon (gun, knife, or club) on school property on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey and 7.8 percent reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times.

(7) In a 2007 nationally representative sample of youth in grades 9 through 12 regarding youth violence, the CDC found--

(A) 35.5 percent reported being in a physical fight in the 12 months preceding the survey; the prevalence was higher among males (44.4 percent) than females (26.5 percent); and

(B) 18 percent reported carrying a weapon (gun, knife, or club) on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey and 5.2 percent carried a gun on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey.

(8) An estimated 30 percent of 6th to 10th graders in the United States were either a bully, a target of bullying, or both.

(9) From 1992 to 1999, perpetrators of school-associated homicides were nine times as likely as victims to have exhibited some form of suicidal behavior before the event, and were more than twice as likely as victims to have been bullied by their peers and more than half of the incidents over this period were preceded by some signal, such as threats, notes, or journal entries that indicated the potential for the coming event.

(10) Most of the violent events involving students occur during the transition times around the start of the school day, the lunch period, and at the end of the school day.

(11) While rates of school-associated student homicides decreased between 1992 and 2006, they remained relatively stable in recent years and were significantly higher for males, students in secondary schools, and students in central cities.

(12) From 1999 to 2006, most school-associated homicides included gunshot wounds (65 percent), stabbing or cutting (27 percent), and beating (12 percent).

(13) The CDC estimates that women experience 4,800,000 Intimate Partner Violence, or domestic-related, physical assaults and rapes per year and men are the victims of about 2,900,000 IPV-related physical assaults annually.

(14) Children who bear the burden of witnessing violent acts, whether at home, in school, or in their communities must be taught coping mechanisms before they are desensitized to violence and violent acts.