"I'm a dominating bully"

from Alan J. Borsuk's entry on the Marquette University Law School faculty blog:

Three students from Milwaukee’s Custer High School, two girls and a boy, didn’t offer research evidence or a PowerPoint presentation. They just described incidents they have been involved in as bullies and as victims, gave their thoughts on why students act the way they do — and held the rapt attention of the audience.

All three are part of the Violence Free Zone project at Custer, run by Running Rebels, a local organization that aims to direct teens away from violent behavior.

Nov 20, 2009 Policy, School

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Restorative justice: From principles to practice

from Michael Simmonds' entry on Island Pacific School's blog:

Restorative justice is not only a practice it’s a philosophy. A school is working within a restorative justice framework when the primary focus is on relationship building: student-to-student; adult-to-student; and adult-to-adult. A whole school model of restorative justice promotes a continuum of practices that are used like tools for different situations. Although restorative justice practices take different forms like, for example, mini-conferences, peer mediation, and talking circles they are similar insomuch as they use restorative communication as the norm. These include: (1) speaking calmly, (2) speaking respectfully, (3) using simple, straightforward language, (4) being sensitive to cultural differences, and (5) using the language of restoration with everyone.

Nov 18, 2009 Policy, School

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Stop bullying now

from Dean Henk's entry on the Marquette Educator:

Attending the Law School’s conference on bullying yesterday took me back vividly to the one and only time I was bullied.  It only lasted about 24 hours, but it made such an impact on me that I’ll remember it always.

When I was in sixth grade, our class bully threatened to kill me because I beat him out for the basketball team. I was traumatized, because he had flunked two times and was physically superior to everyone in my class.

Nov 17, 2009 Policy, School

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Implementing restorative justice: A guide for schools

Recently, the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority released the guide Implementing Restorative Justice: A guide for  Schools as part of a series of resources created to help with the statewide implementation of restorative justice for working with young offenders. Developed with assistance from juvenile justice practitioners and school personnel,  it provides guidance for implementing policy and practice in both elementary and secondary schools. The goals of the guide include:

• Introduce to school personnel the concepts of restorative justice and restorative discipline.
  
• Offer new tools that can reduce the need for school exclusion and juvenile justice system involvement in school misconduct.
  
• Offer ways to enhance the school environment to prevent conflict and restore relationships after conflict arises.

Nov 12, 2009 School, Practice, Guidelines, Manual, Guideline, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Standards, Teacher, Country:USA

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