by Ann L. Rappoport, PhD
What school wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to reduce discipline problems by 50 percent?
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For More Info
• Schools cited in this article participate in SaferSanerSchools, a program of the International Institute for Restorative Practices, Bethlehem, PA. For additional information on the restorative justice concept, see: • Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking, University of Minnesota, http://2ssw.che.umn.edu/rjp • The Centre for Restorative Justice, Simon Fraser University, www.sfu.ca/crj • “Restorative Justice,” Australian Institute of Criminology www.aic.gov.au/rjustice |
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Prior to his appointment as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Education, Dr. Francis Barnes, former superintendent of Palisades School District in Bucks County, commended the use of restorative practices as “a set of practical responses to student behavior and proactive strategies that strengthen accountability and improve school culture.” He had implemented this approach at Palisades and noted “significant improvement in the behavior of individual students and in the overall building culture.” Restorative practices have been spreading to schools across the Delaware Valley.
What Are Restorative Practices?“We put the responsibility back on the student, not on an administrator of punishment,” explains Bob Costello, director of training for the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), based in Bethlehem, PA. “We’ll ask the offender, ‘How are you going to make this right?’
“The student will usually respond, ‘I don’t know,’ and we’ll say, ‘Then whom are you going to ask? It’s your problem, you created it.’” Too often, Costello notes, offending youngsters come with a mindset, “Can’t you just suspend me? Isn’t that your job?”
A problem with most punitive school policies is that they result in “a passive experience, demanding little or no participation” by the offending student, according to IIRP documents. The punished student typically feels resentful, alienated, trapped and disconnected from the school community. He has little motivation to improve, and his relationship with the mainstream community deteriorates further.
In contrast, restorative practices focus on restoring a healthy, respectful relationship between the aggrieved parties and the offender. The approach emphasizes positive support within strong limits. Instead of being isolated further from the community, offenders are expected to face the people they have wronged, listen to the harm caused by their inappropriate behavior and find an acceptable way to make amends. Their actions restore their relationship with their community.
A Way To Do Business
Disciplinary referrals are down 50 percent at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County because restorative practices pay attention to both affective and academic issues, according to Principal Joseph Roy, who’s been there since leaving the principal’s post at Palisades five years ago.
He cites a typical confrontation between two youngsters that took place as one period was ending: The relationship had been festering, an incendiary comment was made, and a fight broke out. Everybody in the class was riled up, and as students re-assembled in the next class, emotions were high.
Restorative practices handled the situation within 15 minutes. The agitated parties were at peace, the learning atmosphere was restored, and class proceeded.
Here’s how it worked: The teacher called for a “circle” and launched a series of questions. What happened? What was your role in it? Who was affected, and how? How are you going to fix it? For in-school suspensions, students must respond in writing to an equivalent set of reflective questions.
Roy says this approach has eliminated smoking in the bathrooms at Springfield Township High School; prior to restorative practices, people complained that they couldn’t even enter the bathrooms.
There are lots of pieces, Roy says. Sometimes the process is more formal than other times. But by attending to little problems, you prevent simmering and escalation into bigger ones. You build a positive climate.
“It’s not just for problems,” Roy adds. “It’s a way to do business.”
Abington Example
Abington Junior High School views restorative practices as “a process or philosophy, rather than a canned curriculum,” according to Judy Bomze, director of pupil services. She said that the school staff was “phenomenally” receptive to the training this past August, and are implementing restorative practices as tools for building a positive climate, in prevention and intervention of misbehaviors and for post-conflict restoration of relationships.
One seventh grade team modified their student orientation this year to include a discussion of hallway behavior and the role of hall monitors. Teachers introduced the students directly to the hall monitors, and later talked about them as individuals performing their jobs. The monitors have remarked about how well-mannered this group of students has been so far.
Assistant Principal Chuck Lentz has noted that fewer detentions have already been issued than usual, as student altercations with teachers have been resolved with discussions and student apologies.
“There was also the issue with the lunch tables, where we discussed the behavior and students resolved to take on a leadership role in keeping their tables clean, and they have been doing so,” Lentz says.
Pottstown: “It Makes Sense.”
A major appeal of restorative practices to Pottstown High School is that the approach “helps teach how to handle situations differently the next time,” says Assistant Principal Dan Tracy. Traditional approaches “leave you with the same damaged relationships. The students are mad. The teachers are angry. The parents are upset. In contrast, restorative practices provide a voice to the people who are affected, and an opportunity for the offender to figure out a way to fix that. It makes a lot of sense,” Tracy says.
Pottstown has been using restorative practices for the entire ninth grade, and in the administration’s dealing with all students. The plan is to expand the program throughout the school without totally abandoning recourse to the conventional punitive consequences, if needed, and for those who don’t buy into the new system.
Restorative practices got a workout recently when a large group of students caused a loud scene on a field trip. Students rejecting the restorative approach are now prohibited from participating in future field trips for the rest of the year. Those who took the restorative route learned why the teachers were so disappointed and embarrassed by their behavior and how it jeopardized future grants for the school. They wrote apologies to the teachers, the site, and the grantor, pledging that such behavior would not recur. As a result, their punitive consequences were less than their unresponsive peers.
Tracy says his relationship with students has improved, and that the school is slowly developing into a safer, more respectful place. Any upfront time devoted to this approach “is paid back in the more positive environment and less disruptive classes,” he notes.
Upper Darby Success
Upper Darby School District has expanded restorative practices from the high school level down to the Twilight Academy at Beverly Hills Middle School this year. Twilight is an in-house, district-run alternative school program for students who have a pattern of numerous suspensions for cursing at teachers and other disruptive classroom behaviors. Other students attend Twilight Academy as they transition back into the district after violating more serious district policies, even weapons offenses.
“One reason we’re so enthusiastic is that restorative practices increase communications skills,” says social worker Ceire Evans. “Effective communications skills are extremely lacking in students in alternative education, and yet communications are key to life success.”
Twilight begins the day with a session on “mega-skills,” which focus on skills from anger management to balancing checkbooks and other fundamentals. Then the group moves into “circle,” in which everyone — teachers and students — takes a turn addressing the question of the day. That question or “circle starter” might have to do with a particular TV show or something everybody is working on that day.
The key, however, is that everybody in the community must participate before the circle is concluded. Then typical coursework is conducted and a concluding circle reviews the day.
Overcoming Resistance
Is restorative practice too touchy-feely? Does it coddle criminal types? Isn’t the attention you get from misbehaving an incentive to do it more often? What about the time! How can teachers teach if they’re conversing with students over every infraction?
“It’s good education,” declares Springfield Principal Roy. Without restorative practices, teachers face a constant undercurrent of low-level interference. You lose more time by avoiding the issues. On the other hand, through restorative practice, you address issues directly, resolve problems, improve the atmosphere, and save time in the end.
Roy grants that there are occasional situations “when I don’t feel very restorative!” But he maintains that you have to balance the need to fix the relationship so the problem doesn’t recur against the consequences of conventional responses such as suspension.
Punishment doesn’t help offenders buy into their responsibility for their own education or for treating other people with respect, explains Costello. Restorative practices represent a “powerful opportunity to teach that to kids.”
With “suspension rates at an embarrassingly high level,” Principal Dr. Thomas Davidson at Stoddart Fleisher Middle School in Philadelphia says he was looking for alternative approaches and was impressed with what he’d read about restorative practices.
His staff responded well to the “down to earth” presentation by Costello, and to the “common sense collection of good things that seem to be working.” He says he has lots of volunteers to take up the promising new approach this year and is “looking forward to a very positive experience.”
“I’m not Pollyanna. You can try it out, see the difference it makes and then take the next step,” says Costello.
Ann L. Rappoport, PhD is a contributing writer to MetroKids and an educational consultant.