In my fourth year of teaching, my second grade student, Jaime, raised his hand and asked to read his morning journal aloud.

Jaime had been held back in first grade. He was a year older than his classmates and was already large for his age. He had begun the school year hitting, pushing, and overpowering his classmates on a daily basis. 

Now, after several months in the role we’d given him as a Peacemaker for younger students in the school, he had transformed from a sullen bully into a funny, mostly enjoyable student. But today his usual goofy grin had been replaced with a deep, heavy frown.

As Jaime read his journal, we learned that the evening before, his sister’s boyfriend had driven a car through their front door. 

His sister then stabbed her angry boyfriend in the stomach with a kitchen knife.  

Jaime and his family had spent most of the night in the ER with his...