News Summary

PARK LAYNE — It wasn't long ago that Richard Collins had to be practically dragged out of bed to get up and moving to go to school.

"Then I still refused to go to school," the 17-year-old recalled.

It was just one element of Collins' young life that seemed to be going awry.

In addition to failing class after class at Tecumseh High School, the teenager was getting into trouble with the police regularly.

"It had come down to the point where either he was going to go to school or he was going to jail," said Bob Collins, Richard's father. "That's what they told us."

"They" being Clark County Juvenile Center officials, who knew Richard from repeated stints in juvenile detention when truancy charges and other issues caught up with him.

It was at that point that the Clark County Common Pleas Court Juvenile Division Mediation Center stepped in.

"Mediation is a process, I suppose, that utilizes a neutral mediator to bring people who have a dispute together to solve their problems themselves," explained Tom Wilson, juvenile court administrator and magistrate.

The mediator does not impose his or her solutions on the parties," Wilson said. "The parties have to come up with the solution, which is a fundamental change in how a court does business."

In 2007, about 580 cases were mediated within city and county schools and 153 were mediated through the court.

The Collinses' mediation explored options that led to Richard's transfer to an alternative charter school in Dayton, where he is now excelling in his classes, said his mother, Shirley Collins.

The pride that was apparent on her face says more than simple words ever could.

"He's turned his life around," Shirley Collins said. "He's done really well and I'm proud of him."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.