Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 44
An obstacle to spreading the practices more broadly
is that we don’t yet have a large cadre of practitioners
who are trained to do this work in schools.
Sometimes the people who are trained in Restorative
Justice cannot make the transition to the school
setting and its goals. We are really focusing on
creating capacity builders, but we need more funding
to hire individuals who can be effectively trained as
school-site coaches.
What differences did you see after Restorative
Practices began to take root at Richmond High?
Well, in addition to the sharp decrease in suspensions
(53%), the change in overall school climate was
palpable and observable. The year prior, you would
not have wanted to walk through the halls during a
class change. Students were jostling, bumping and
running into each other and administrators were
having a hard time clearing the halls. If you go to
the school now, when class is in session, the halls are
empty. The fights went down because the students
had learned about Restorative Practices, participated
and had begun to address issues among themselves
and/or had multiple connections with adults who
they actually trusted.
Also, they own this now, so when I go to a meeting
they are talking about all of the additional things that
they are doing and beginning that we aren’t leading.
They are designing them and deciding to move the
ball forward.
So, now that you know what you know about how
these practices can really take root at a schoolsite, what exactly do you think is needed to make
it work and how much does it cost?
Well, we estimate the cost per year as $65,000 and
think that it takes either two or three years for full
implementation. That cost covers training expenses
and three days of coaching support per week. The
coaches who work with the schools need to be very
clear that their role is capacity builder and not service
provider. If they just do the circles for the school, it
will never take root.
42 How we can fix school discipline
Can you give an example of how a “circle” works
in the discipline context?
Well, we just began the training process at a new
high school. In the second skills-based training,
we asked them to provide us a scenario that could
be used to actually address harm. They discussed
that in the first week of school a fight had broken
out. A young woman thought a young man was
harassing her cousin. They may have pushed each
other. A bunch of other freshman jump in. Then, a
few seniors walking by thought that one of the young
women was being hurt, so they jumped in to protect
her. The Assistant Principal suspended everyone
for 5 days. So, our first circle was a reintegration to
the school community circle with all of the students.
The AP and staff present were somewhat surprised
at how well the circle worked within a relatively
short period of time; the AP noted after the fact and
upon reflection that he had suspended the seniors
for doing something that he might ask his own
boys to do. Out of this, the group decided that they
need to begin circle practice around manhood and
responsibility and what it meant in the community.
Do you have any other suggestions for how we
spread these practices more broadly?
Well, I think it would be extraordinary if these
trainings and trainings around other alternative
structures, like SWPBIS which is aligned with and
works with Restorative Practices, can be part of the
school administrator and teacher training process.
If you cross-train school administrators, then we will
see these practices in places across the state much
more quickly.
Feel free to contact me:
Millie Burns
Restorative Justice Cons ultant
[email protected]