High school students from the Edmonds and Everett School Districts came together Saturday for peer-mediation training designed to help them stop trouble before it starts.

Dozens of teens gathered at Edmonds-Woodway High School’s Great Hall for the daylong event, sponsored by the Lynnwood-based ACCESS Project, a nonprofit formed in 2022 to serve youth grappling with mental health challenges.

“We’re aiming to provide students with the skills to first recognize and then defuse potentially volatile conflict between their peers before they escalate into destructive behaviors,” explained ACCESS Project founder Wally Webster II. “This training is an incredible opportunity to enhance communication skills, build conflict-resolution strategies and foster a stronger sense of collaboration among our youth.”

The goal, Webster said, is to connect with troubled young people “before they commit crimes and self-harm. When we dial 911, it is reactive. We want to be proactive and interdict the challenges before they commit life-changing acts.”

The morning training was facilitated by EWHS Counselor Josh Webb, assisted by former EWHS student and peer mediator Jess Phan.  Phan is now studying political science at the University of Washington and plans to go to law school.

After an introduction to the day’s ground rules, the group broke into tables for role playing. Two students were assigned to be mediators, and two assigned to be disputants. The disputants received a script describing their dispute, and were coached by Webb and Phan in another part of the room separate from the mediators to ensure that the mediators had no prior knowledge of the dispute’s details. Disputants then returned to the table to begin role play with the mediators, who would draw out the causes of the problem and help the disputants come to a resolution.

This is the latest in a series of events sponsored by the ACCESS Project. The nonprofit, in partnership with the Edmonds School District, hosted a grief and grievance session following the death of 13-year-old Jayda Woods-Johnson who was shot and killed by another teen at Alderwood Mall in July. And in October and November, it hosted forums aimed supporting youth through challenges related to mental health, bullying, substance abuse and other issues.

Learn more about the ACCESS Project here.

— By Teresa Wippel with reporting and photos by Larry Vogel