Restorative Justice in the Classroom

Creating a safe environment for students in a place that they are required to be is step one to building community within schools. For years, these systems would implement suspensions and office referrals to discipline students when there are more effective ways to manage incidents that also curate a safe environment.

Students and community members
engaging in a Restorative Justice meeting

Restorative Justice is a system that has started to be utilized in the classroom to repair the damage done to the school and the greater community so students can focus on learning. Schools implementing Restorative Justice will hold meetings that include the offending student, those they harmed, and sometimes community members to fix this damage. These meetings aim to hold the offending student accountable for their actions and provide those they did harm with a safe environment to express how the events impacted them. Schools across the country are vastly different and face different levels of severity regarding behavior problems. Restorative Justice training teams recognize these differences and help schools develop a plan specific to the needs of their students and community. Some schools that have created a Restorative Justice plan have found that they can better foster an inclusive, social-connected community while managing classrooms that don't take away from learning opportunities. 

I had never heard of Restorative Justice until three weeks ago. My K-12 experience relied heavily on going to the Principal's Office and receiving in-school suspensions for acting out while in school. I never understood either option's point because it was just a way of preventing the student from being able to learn with the rest of their classmates. The students that faced in-school suspensions typically continued to get them throughout the rest of the school year because they got out of sitting in class. However, the more they receive in-school suspensions, the farther behind they fall in class. The system clearly doesn't work if students continue to receive in-school suspensions and never truly learn from their actions. A broken system is one of the factors in non-100% graduation rates, poor classroom management, and a lack of parent/guardian involvement in the school. Restorative Justice, I believe, is the key to combating all three issues. 

Many students who lack connection with their school, community, and family find themselves acting out to cope with their feelings. Many teachers and psychologists can pick up on cues as to when students may act out, but by that point, it may be too late. Restorative Justice training can help establish procedures to prevent poor behavior before it reaches that point. The type of students mentioned above only continues to feel distance from their school and community the more time they have to spend away from the classroom. Restorative practices eliminate the need to take students away from learning time by hosting meetings outside of the school day: students and parents/guardians who are occupied during the day can partake in conversations to repair relationships. Communication is vital to fostering relationships, and allowing students to express their feelings is the first step to creating their community. I believe that Restorative Justice programs are beneficial not only for the students in school but also for their parents/guardians. Keeping guardians in the loop about their student's behavior in school--a place they are required to be--will help them strengthen their relationships and keep them involved with the greater school community.