Committee approves Smitherman bill to require conflict-resolution training before high-school promotion

The Senate Education Policy Committee approved SP 34 by Sen. Smitherman after adopting an amendment requested by the State Board of Education to apply the required conflict-resolution training before promotion to high school.

Sen. Smitherman told the committee the bill aims to teach conflict resolution to students “before promotion to high school” so that students enter high school with a shared set of conflict-management skills. Smitherman described social media and reduced in-person contact as contributors to escalating conflicts among students and argued broad school-based training is needed so that “if this one don’t know what you talking about, and they used to handle it from a barbaric perspective, it don't matter.”

The State Board requested the amendment to shift the statutory trigger from “before graduation from high school” to “before promotion to high school,” and the amendment was offered, seconded (Sen. Hatcher and Sen. Butler were recorded on the amendment), and adopted. Committee members said they will invite experts on social media and classroom cell-phone policies to the next meeting to review approaches other states have used.

Sen. Hatcher and others spoke in support, citing research and clinical observations that problematic behaviors often emerge in middle school, particularly seventh grade. After the amendment passed, a motion for final passage was made and the chair announced the bill was given a favorable report on the record.