Schools

Restorative practices are used to address disciplinary and other matters in schools with students at every age level. These resources are related to the implementation of restorative practices in the school environment.

Head Teacher Describes His Experience with Restorative Approaches

A teacher from the UK describes his experience in using restorative approaches after receiving training.

Burnett, Steven Wayne. School Achievement for Students with Behavioral Disorders.

The purpose of the descriptive qualitative study was to examine the successful strategies,accommodations, and interventions utilized for students with emotional behavior disorder(EBD) and the influences they have on the students’ academic achievement (GPA, passage rates of courses, passage rates of state mandated assessments, student satisfaction, attendance rates, and disciplinary infractions) and glean greater understanding of instructional strategies and environmental differences alternative schools offer to students with EBD. In addition to a parent and a student with EBD, an alternative school staff was analyzed in rich detail to glean understanding of environmental influences. Data were collected using document analysis, surveys, field notes, and interviewing techniques. Findings of the study provide educators with organizational structures and strategies to help students with EBD achieve academically, pass No Child Left Behind (NCLB) assessments, and graduate from high school. (Excerpt).

Educator and alumni

I attended during the late 70's and early eighties. In the late nineties I returned as a teacher. I was heart broken. Such a large, [...]

implementing restorative practices

Many recommend implementing restorative practices in other schools, one saying that the fact it worked in their tough urban school proves that it can work [...]

Video Review: The Transformation of West Philadelphia High School: A Story of Hope

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.

Givin' them kids all the power. What's next? No discipline, no obedience, no...fist fights.

from the blog entry by Savannah Iverson on Restorative Justice Colorado: What you're about to read in this blog article, is a little about how I have changed over the past year, after joining the Restorative Justice (RJ) student team. I joined the team the summer before freshman year.First though, let me give a brief description of the Longmont High School RJ Team. We are a team of roughly 20 student facilitators that practice Restorative Justice in 3 schools in the SVVSD. It’s a program run by student facilitators for students in conflict.

Restorative justice stops fights, keeps kids in schools

from Nelson Garcia's article on 9News.com: Juan Salazar used to be one of those students who got into trouble for fighting at North High School. Now he uses words instead of fists. "If someone bumped into me, I started saying something," Salazar, a senior, said. "It always led to a fight." It also always led to a suspension.

Fertal, Thomas. How restorative practices made me a high school principal.

From the very beginning, I must say that the concepts I had learned at the IIRP showed their worth: Fair process,functioning as a community and compassionate witnessing. All of these became the tools I used in dealing with faculty, parents, board members and students. I was implementing restorative practices in every aspect of my work, in that I directly involved people in matters that concerned them and gave everyone a voice. Open and honest communication was critical, as was transparent leadership. Faculty members were now involved in decisions that they had never been privy to before, such as creating an overall teacher pay scale and the decision to drop class rank. Collaboration with board members reached new levels. People wanted to be heard. People wanted to have a say. I listened to them and engaged them.

Mateer, Susan Caro. The use of restorative justice practices in a school community traumatized by an incident of planned school violence: A case study.

In 2001, less than two years after the Columbine High School shootings, a plan to copycat the Columbine shooting in a junior high school was interrupted by police. This was one of the first documented cases of interrupted school violence and the school where this was to occur was traumatized both by the fact that students were planning violence and the attention given to the event by the media. Even though no one was physically hurt, the school community was shocked and victimized. Eventually, three junior high school students reached plea agreement through the courts for their part in the incident and were sentenced to juvenile corrections. The school was left to pick up the pieces and attempt to understand how this could have happened. This study uses a case study format and interviews with involved administrators, teachers and juvenile justice practitioners to document how the school community recovered from this event - restored and transformed. It looks at how the responses to the trauma were based in restorative justice values and beliefs and why restorative justice played such an important part in the recovery. The school used restorative justice practices that were uniquely suited to the event and responsive to the healing needs of the community at the time. These responses; the Tree, the community meeting, the Summit, the talking piece rock, the mascot statue; all served a purpose at the time and all were steeped in restorative values. In time, a traditional restorative justice conference was held in which two of the offending students responded to the concerns of the school and were welcomed back to the community. Restorative justice has traditionally been about repairing the harm caused by crime. In this situation not only was the harm repaired, but the community used the pain created by the harm to create transformation, a transformation that resulted in a very good school becoming even better. What was transformational is that each of the actions taken by the school served not only to repair the harm caused by the event but served to raise the community to higher levels of safety, interdependence, respect, and inclusivity. This research documents how one school community used restorative practices to bring about transformational social justice. (author's abstract)

Mirsky, Laura. SaferSanerSchools: Transforming School Cultures with Restorative Practices.

High levels of disruptive behaviour, discipline referrals, and suspensions are among the symptoms of schools which have lost the bonds of respect. Educators face major challenges in transforming these school cultures. This article describes how restorative practices were implemented in certain southeastern Pennsylvania schools. The process of change is described from the perspective of faculty, students, administrators, and other community stakeholders. (author's abstract)

Botha, M. Elaine. Christian Scholarship for Reconciliation? The Free University of Amsterdam and Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education

The theme of this chapter deals with the question of whether the two mnodels of Christian scholarship pursued by the two institutions [Free University and Potchefstroom University] actually contributed to societal reconciliation - reconciliation within racial and ethnic tensions as they have become apparent in South Africa. This narrows the focus of of reconciliation to a societal and political focus, which in turn shapes the question of whether a university as an academic community can or ought to in any way contribute to or become involved in the resolution of such tension. (excerpt)

Restorative practices in the university: How two professors and a student worked together to resolve conflict

from the article by Mary Hoeft, Sarah Bennett and Altravis Lewis: Altravis sat in the back of my algebra class. He missed class often. His work showed evidence of his struggle. When I focused on him, I could see a look of disengagement. One day as I stood at the front of the classroom discussing a problem, I heard Altravis shout out in frustration. I was shaken and scared. I knew that his outburst had rattled students. After class, I approached Altravis and asked what was going on. He apologized and explained that it wouldn’t happen again.

RJ

Because we have a system that is known as the 'justice system', I understand that we probably need to differentiate Restorative Justice from mere 'justice'. [...]

The promise of restorative justice: New approaches for criminal justice and beyond

reviewed by Martin Wright It is becoming increasingly clear that the principles of restorative justice can be used, as the editors say, outside the formal criminal justice system, and this book bears witness to that. Half is about criminal justice, and half about other applications in schools and elsewhere. The contributors reflect the book’s origins among a group at Fresno Pacific University in California, but other chapters come from Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

Restorative justice in higher education: A compilation of formats and best practices

from the guide by Justine Darling: ....There are many restorative tools and processes that can be used in the university setting. This guide is specific to Judicial and Residential Life processes within Institutions of Higher Education. Addressed below are the five most common methods of implementation that are used at the 9 colleges and universities in this study. The goal of all 5 Restorative Processes is for the respondent to acknowledge responsibility, identify harm and obligations, and develop a restorative plan agreed upon by the person responsible and impacted parties. Language used in Restorative Judicial Processes is different than the language used in Traditional Judicial Processes so that stigmatization is less likely to occur.

Wright, Martin. Book Review: Just schools: A Whole School Approach to Restorative Justice

Wright reviews Justice Schools: A Whole School Approach to Restorative Justice by Belinda Hopkins.

Haft, William. More Than Zero: The Cost of Zero Tolerance and the Case for Restorative Justice in Schools.

There is a trend in public education toward "zero tolerance" policies. Zero tolerance policies are designed to suspend or expel from public schools students who commit a single occurrence of proscribed conduct. The trend is largely a response to increased youth violence or the perception of increased youth violence, particularly in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings. In this context, William Haft contends that zero tolerance responses directly counter a fundamental purpose of public education, namely, the purpose of preparing children to live in a democratic society. Exclusionary policies should be a last resort not a first resort. Hence, it is necessary to have intermediate responses available to teachers and administrators. Haft urges the application of restorative justice principles and practices - particularly victim-offender mediation - as alternative responses to exclusionary policies in school settings.

Restorative justice in schools -- Mapleton Early College

A high school student describes how participating in restorative justice changed her attitude and approach to school. Her principal describes the positive impacts of restorative justice on the school environment.

Restorative Justice in Schools -- Montbello High School

In this video, practitioners and a student explain the impact restorative practices had on the culture of Montbello High School in Longmont, CO. The suspensions and expulsions fell by 30%.