Twin Peaks

An Honor Council Mediation

Audrey contacted Honor Council about a situation in which she desired some assistance. Two members of Honor Council then spoke with Audrey and two friends, Agent Cooper and Maddie, who had decided to join Audrey in confrontation. Later, the two members of Honor Council met with the three people they wished to confront: BOB, Mike, and Laura Palmer.

Audrey wished to confront BOB, Mike, and Laura Palmer about an event that had occurred the previous weekend, on a night that a party was being held in the basement of her dormitory. She had opened the door to her hall for BOB, Mike, and Laura assuming they needed to use the rest room. However, Agent Cooper walked in the bathroom to find them doing drugs; when he returned to tell Audrey, they were both upset. Audrey then thought about the situation for a day before she contacted Honor Council. Because Audrey and the others on her hall did not feel comfortable approaching and confronting the other parties involved, she asked Honor Council to serve in her place during this initial confrontation. Audrey wrote a statement that two Honor Council members used to communicate her concerns when they met with BOB, Mike, and Laura a few days later.

A combination of Audrey’s two statements given to Honor Council

Recounting the events of the night in question, Audrey wrote that there had been a party in the basement of her dormitory. All night people had been knocking on the door to use the rest room on their hall. It was quite late when Audrey answered the door and let in BOB, Mike, and Laura, who apparently wanted only to use the rest room. BOB, Mike, and Laura were being loud in the rest room so someone living on the hall walked in and sarcastically asked if the party had moved to the rest room. Maddie then walked into the rest room a few minutes later and saw BOB, Mike, and Laura doing drugs. She went and told Agent Cooper and he returned to the rest room to see what was going on, and upon seeing what Maddie had told him, he asked BOB, Mike, and Laura to leave, and after cleaning up they did so. Agent Cooper then went to speak with Audrey who had thought nothing of letting the three people on to the hall until Agent Cooper sought her out to tell her that he and Maddie had found BOB, Mike, and Laura doing drugs in the rest room.

Audrey, Agent Cooper, Maddie, and others on their hall were concerned about what had happened, as they felt that their private space had been seriously violated; also, they were now frightened of BOB, Mike, and Laura. Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie were not so concerned that BOB, Mike, and Laura were using what they assumed to be illegal drugs, as they were that they had brought and used those drugs in what they valued as their safe and private space. Additionally, Audrey felt that she might be responsible in part for what had occurred on the hall because she had opened the door to let them in. Audrey wrote, “I opened the door to them with the trust that they would respect our safe spaces, and they violated that trust. That made us feel uncomfortable and unsafe in our home.”

Confrontation

When the two Honor Council members meet with BOB, Mike, and Laura, they shared Audrey’s concerns with them and discussed the issues at hand. BOB, Mike, and Laura all felt very badly that they had caused such distress by their behavior; they also expressed surprise and dismay that their actions could have had such negative emotional effects. Mike was upset that members of the community now thought of him as dangerous, and wanted to know what he could do to change such perceptions. All three wanted an opportunity to speak with Audrey, Agent Cooper and Maddie, to apologize for their actions, to see if they could come to any common understanding, and to repair the breach of trust due to their actions.

Mediation

Honor Council arranged a meeting with all six of the involved people to discuss the incident and the feelings that it had generated. The mediation began with time for each party to speak without interruption. Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie spoke first and repeated the essence of what Audrey had written in her statements, stressing that their primary concerns were BOB, Mike, and Laura’s disrespect for their space, and ensuring that a similar event did not happen to anyone else on campus. BOB, Mike, and Laura apologized for having scared and disrespected Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie, and explained that simply because they were comfortable with their own actions, they hadn’t considered that others might be uncomfortable with those actions; this, they admitted, was inconsiderate and disrespectful. They assured Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie that they would not make a similar error again, as they had certainly learned the possible effects of their actions on others through the process of confrontation. After further informal discussion between all parties a short recess was taken and Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie met privately to discuss how they wanted to proceed from this point. Upon their return they proposed three resolutions:

1. An abstract will be written and distributed to the student body describing the events and the subsequent process that occurred.

2. BOB, Mike, and Laura will write a letter to the community that will be published with the abstract.

3. BOB, Mike, and Laura will write a personal apology to the residents of Audrey, Agent Cooper, and Maddie’s hall.

After some discussion, all parties involved agreed that these resolutions addressed the issues at hand and that they would be completed by the end of the semester. The mediation then formally ended.

Questions

1. Was this the proper method for dealing with the issues involved?

2. Is it possible to separate the issue of drug use from the issues of a breach of trust and safety?

3. Do you feel that your concerns become other people’s concerns when you act them out in places other than your personal space?