Who instills this?

Today, I had a student who wrote a not very nice note to a classmate. After the teacher had spoken with her (happened in another class), I politely explained that I was not going to punish her since she had already been talked to. I asked her what she thought she ought to do and what will happen as a consequence if she does it again. She told me she had already written an apology note (on our sticky notes) and I explained that I will keep the first note and if it happens again, she'll call her mother and read the note.

I am glad that she wrote an apology note before I even asked her to do so and watching the boy read it and accept her apology was precious.

So, my question is...who instilled this in her? Is it just something she's always had? Is it from the classroom and the way we run our community? I'm glad she used the notes that are so readily available. Regardless...I am so very excited that she knows she has to fix what she has broken and that he accepted her apology so freely.