Administrators

Articles exploring the inclusion of restorative practices in the school environment including statement of good practice.

Meet the modern high schooler

from the article by Joanne Laucius in The Ottawa Citizen: ....Meanwhile, it's hard to be angst-ridden when you are the product of anti-bullying and self-esteem initiatives. Many high schools have a part-time addictions councillor and a gay-straight alliance. Programs like restorative justice, peer mediation and Online Safety Week bring a sense of justice and consequences to students on a day-to-day basis.

Editorial: Remarkable result

From The Press: On the face of it, a new approach by the St Thomas of Canterbury school to misbehaviour by students has been an extraordinary success. Since replacing its pastoral care behaviour management system with a restorative justice programme, the number of suspensions and expulsions the school has made have plummeted.

Restorative justice training gives voice to kids

from the entry on Catalyst Miami: Power U wants school discipline to be less arbitrary and more proactive. Judging by the comments made in a restorative justice workshop Power U led at HSC the other day, a lot of kids and teens agree that "zero tolerance" policies in schools are creating hostile learning environments.

Youth win on Chicago Public Schools guards, grievance process

from the article by Curtis Black on communitymediaworkshop.org: In a victory for two youth organizing drives, CPS has agreed to establish a grievance procedure for students experiencing violence, harassment or discrimination, and to pilot a program training security guards to use principles of restorative justice in their work. Both campaigns promote the restorative justice approach – emphasizing accountability as an alternative to zero tolerance and punitive discipline – as a more effective approach to reducing violence, said Sam Finkelstein of GenderJust, an LGTB student group that protested at CPS headquarters and at CPS chief Ron Huberman’s home to demand a grievance procedure.

County can take the lead in ensuring juvenile justice

from Gregg Volz's commentary in timesleader.com: The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice report on the Luzerne County judicial scandal revealed a multi-systemic failure. Juvenile offenders – some as young as 12– were taken from their parents and placed in detention facilities for weeks, sometimes months, for extremely minor offenses. To put these youth in juvenile detention for minor transgressions at a cost of several hundred dollars a day for months on end is unconscionable public policy. The report outlines both a virtual breakdown in all three branches of government and a system plagued by tension between those who wanted the juvenile justice system to punish misconduct and those who wanted it to teach youth how to avoid repeating bad behavior. Also at fault, according to the report, “is the fact that there exists an inaccurate perception about the children who come into the juvenile courts.” While some accounts conjure up images of “juvenile predators” or “gang leaders,” our juvenile courts generally deal with less serious conduct – cases that reflect common immaturities among juveniles.

Expert: End zero tolerance policies

from Mark Guydish's article in timesleader.com: An education-law advocacy group said ending zero-tolerance policies in schools as recommended in the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice on Thursday would have benefits far beyond the commission’s goal of preventing a recurrence of the “kids-for-cash” scandal seen in Luzerne County. “Statistics show that any contact students have with police increases the likelihood of future contacts,” Education Law Center staff attorney David Lapp said. “People have termed it the ‘prison pipeline.’” Zero tolerance became popular after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, and former county Juvenile Court judge Mark Ciavarella openly advocated zero tolerance for many students who were brought to his bench. Ciavarella and former county judge Michael Conahan are accused of accepting millions of dollars for actions that benefited a private juvenile detention facility in Pittston Township.

What happens at the end of the year

Greg Lawton's post on Central Michigan Restorative Justice Initiative: It's late May. The last day of school for 2009-10 is about 11 days away. For most of the students, teachers, faculty and staff it couldn't come sooner. For Restorative Justice workers like myself, it can be a difficult time. Due to the cumulative effect of discipline, minor misconduct can result in suspension, often for the rest of the year. Student follow-ups are hard to do because of absences, field trips, and assemblies. Day to day operations take a different tack. I find myself wanting to be part of the whole school effort to end well and I practice being a peaceful presence all the more.

Restorative justice in schools

a Teachers.tv presentation of RSA lectures: A group of experts look at restorative justice, a practice which brings together the victims and the perpetrators of conflict in order to find an agreed resolution.

Ann Arbor schools need to move to a restorative justice model of discipline

from the guest column by Joe Summers: Over the past year, the children of two sets of friends have gotten into trouble giving me a chance to watch our current system in practice. In one case, I heard teacher after teacher testify that the youth had been exceptional, and never caused harm, only to be astounded to hear a panel of principals and vice principals rule that the youth should be permanently expelled from Ann Arbor's school system.

Restorative Justice and Campus Conduct Administration

In March, Eastern Mennonite University hosted a symposium exploring the use of restorative practices in college campus conduct administration. These short YouTube videos feature two of the participants describing their experiences with using restorative practices to respond to student misconduct. Josh Bacon, the director of Judicial Affairs at James Madison University in Virginia, describes how implementing restorative practices rejuvenated his career.It gives him the opportunity to interact with students and community members.

Just care: Restorative justice approaches to working with children in public care.

by Martin Wright Just care: Restorative justice approaches to working with children in public care. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009. 224pp. ISBN 978 1 84310 981 5 More and more schools are turning to restorative methods,` often helped by Belinda Hopkins’s previous book Just schools. Now she has applied the same principles to meeting the needs of the troubled and troublesome children who are looked after in state institutions. The ethos is similar, and the approach is spelt out clearly for those who do not have previous knowledge of it, with numerous diagrams and a good index. The examples are chosen to reflect the needs of the staff in children’s homes; others such as youth workers and foster parents could also find this book helpful.

Equity leaders learn how to take restorative justice beyond the circle

from Rob Faulkner's article on Media@HWDSB: When the term “restorative justice” is used in education circles, many educators will think of, well, circles. The best-known tool associated with the RJ approach is likely the blame-free, multi-party conversation in the round that lets the person who caused harm and the person harmed find a solution. But it’s certainly not the only way to use RJ.

Twilight for campus legal codes? Talking circles aid the aftermath of destructively drunk students and more.

from Bonnie Price Lofton's article in The Mennonite: After more than a decade of ushering misbehaving students at James Madison University (JMU), Harrisonburg, Va., through hearings, sanctions and other legalistic steps, Josh Bacon wanted a change. "I went into educational leadership and student affairs because I cared about young adults and their futures," he says. "But that’s not how they perceived me—they saw me as the 'bad guy,' somebody there to enforce the university's rules, somebody who wasn’t on their side.' Seeking a fresh approach, Bacon signed up for a restorative justice course at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, taught by an internationally recognized pioneer in the restorative justice field, Howard Zehr.

Restorative justice in higher education

from Brian G.'s entry on Restorative Theology: This morning I have been involved at a technical-communications level for an event being held here on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University, the Symposium on Restorative Justice in Campus Conduct Administration. Held in the chapel at the seminary, I've been sitting behind the audio-visual equipment, flipping switches and turning dials to make sure presenters are heard, PowerPoint presentations are ready to go, and videotaping the various speakers. I've also been tweeting for the event like crazy on my iPod. All of this falls under the rubric of Marketing and Communications for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding/CJP, so best of all...I'm getting paid to do all this fun stuff and listen to some excellent reflections on restorative justice in the arena of higher education! The event is, as the name implies, focused on student life/campus conduct issues in higher education, and has drawn four great scholar-practitioners who are all passionate about restorative justice.

From schools to prisons: Disciplinary policy brings incarceration

from Brian Wells, David Dutschke, Joseph Phelps and Walter Jones' article on Courier-Journal.com: One of the most alarming trends affecting our children today is what has become known as the “school to prison pipeline,” a term used to describe an all too common reality for poor-performing students. First they are academically unsuccessful, then their misbehavior results in school disciplinary action, then their misbehavior puts them into the juvenile justice system, then they leave school prematurely and eventually end up as incarcerated adults. Nationally, students who do not graduate are three times more likely to be incarcerated. We are losing too many young people down this pipeline for the good of our souls and of our society. The problem calls for the creation of coordinated and creative approaches by our court systems and our school systems.

East Lansing advocate: Jury award should impact bullying

from Kathleen Lavey's article in LSJ.com A jury verdict that found a Michigan school district liable for $800,000 in damages to a student who was the victim of bullies should reinforce that bullying can't be tolerated, an East Lansing advocate says. "This really should be a call to schools that, in the eyes of our legal system, bullying is something that can no longer be overlooked," Kevin Epling said.

Oakland school board approves district-wide restorative justice initiative despite budget crisis

from Lillian R.Mongeau's article in OaklandNorth.net: In other business, the board voted Wednesday night to implement a district-wide “Restorative Justice” initiative.... Restorative Justice focuses on “acknowledging that crime causes injury to people and communities, it insists that justice repair those injuries and that the parties be permitted to participate in that process,” according to the Prison Fellowship International’s Restorative Justice Online web site. In schools, this takes the form of training teachers and students to practice active communication, face-to-face reconciliation and non-punitive actions to address misconduct. Nikita Mitchell, 16,is a junior at Castlemont High where her group, Youth Together, has been trained in restorative justice practices. She said that a key part of the program is better communication. A teacher who notices a student is upset or acting out, for instance, can enter the information into a computer system that the “teacher of record” for the restorative justice program will check daily. That teacher will then refer a trained student to have a one-on-one meeting with the upset student to talk about the problem and work on solutions like apologies, mediation, or “peacemaking circles,” in which members of the community share their feelings and come to a consensus about how to move past inappropriate actions.

Despite budget crisis, Oakland school board approves district-wide restorative justice initiative

from Lillian R.Mongeau's article in OaklandNorth.net: In other business, the board voted Wednesday night to implement a district-wide “Restorative Justice” initiative.... Restorative Justice focuses on “acknowledging that crime causes injury to people and communities, it insists that justice repair those injuries and that the parties be permitted to participate in that process,” according to the Prison Fellowship International’s Restorative Justice Online web site. In schools, this takes the form of training teachers and students to practice active communication, face-to-face reconciliation and non-punitive actions to address misconduct. Nikita Mitchell, 16,is a junior at Castlemont High where her group, Youth Together, has been trained in restorative justice practices. She said that a key part of the program is better communication. A teacher who notices a student is upset or acting out, for instance, can enter the information into a computer system that the “teacher of record” for the restorative justice program will check daily. That teacher will then refer a trained student to have a one-on-one meeting with the upset student to talk about the problem and work on solutions like apologies, mediation, or “peacemaking circles,” in which members of the community share their feelings and come to a consensus about how to move past inappropriate actions.

The secret to creating a calm classroom without conflict

from EducationNews.org: A radical approach to behavioural problems, already successfully used with criminals and in areas of political unrest, is starting to prove its worth in schools. Low-level disruption is a stubborn problem in many classrooms, yet work done in three East Sussex schools shows that this technique makes it possible to get to the roots of problems and make fundamental changes. Research published last month shows that by training staff and pupils as skilled mediators, and by making clear to everyone that conflicts will be dealt with in a fair and open way, these schools have been able to avert problems and make significant changes to their atmosphere.

Restorative justice workshop report