Teenagers identify causes of violence in schools and develop strategies to eliminate violence using GroupSystems electronic meeting system (EMS)

Is it possible to engage teenagers in a serious effort to identify the root causes of school violence and to develop strategies to deal with it? If so, will computer-aided group decision support tools add value to the process? Those are the questions we addressed with the 1998 Teen Think Tank on School Violence. While this was neither a formal nor a scientific treatment of the subject, the results of the initial experiment were overwhelmingly impressive. Using the GroupSystems Electronic Meeting System (EMS), sixteen teenagers grappled with the issue of school violence and generated more than 800 different ways to predict, prevent, avoid, protect, react, eliminate, or cope with youth violence. After brainstorming for ideas, they also used EMS to categorize, prioritize, and to reach consensus about their best ideas. Then they developed teen recommendations for students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and law enforcement officers. This was all accomplished in two EMS sessions; and none of the students had any prior knowledge or experience with EMS. This report presents a synopsis of their findings and a brief description of the EMS process.