Dec

2

It’s time to implement the restorative justice process to help make schools safer

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom | 1 Comment

Keeping schools safe continues to be a hot issue and rightly so. We want our schools to be a safe place where the only thing kids have to worry about is learning the curriculum. But, sadly that’s not the case. It’s painfully clear that schools are a place where bullying, harassment, fighting, assaults, theft, vandalism, weapons offenses and even murders occur. The traditional approach of trying to deter inappropriate behaviour by punishing the offender through detentions, suspensions and expulsions hasn’t been as effective as hoped. It’s time to try another approach. It’s time to implement the restorative justice process into all school to help keep schools safer.

The restorative justice process is not a new process. Quite the contrary. It’s long been part of North American traditional aboriginal justice systems and more recently has been accepted by the Canadian judicial system in its Youth Criminal Justice Act.

What is restorative justice? Ron Claassen founder of the Fresno Victim Offender Reconciliation Program explains

Restorative justice is a process to “make things as right as possible” which includes: attending to needs created by the offense such as safety and repair of injuries to relationships and physical damage resulting from the offense; and attending to needs related to the cause of the offense (addictions, lack of social or employment skills or resources, lack of moral or ethical base, etc.).

Restorative Justice recognizes that crime (violation of persons and relationships) is wrong and should not occur, and also recognizes that after it does there are dangers and opportunities. The danger is that the community, victim(s), and/or offender emerge from the response further alienated, more damaged, disrespected, disempowered, feeling less safe and less cooperative with society. The opportunity is that injustice is recognized, the equity is restored (restitution and grace), and the future is clarified so that participants are safer, more respectful, and more empowered and cooperative with each other and society.

I like the fact that the restorative justice process recognizes that both the victim and the wrong doer have needs that should be addressed. The restorative process gives victims a voice and requires “‘wrong doers to face the victim, consider the impact of their behaviour , and come up with ways of making amends, it holds them accountable for their actions “. From what I’ve seen in my role as a special education teacher specializing in behaviour and as a teacher of students who are at risk academically, the traditional ways of dealing with inappropriate behaviour by punishing wrong doers with detentions, suspensions and expulsions hasn’t been all that effective and often further alienates students and exacerbates the problem. Many students continue to rotate through a series of detentions and suspensions to the point where the detentions and suspensions become a joke. I’ve heard lots of kids laughing about getting detentions and suspensions. They get to stay home and don’t have to come to school, and that suits them just fine. Thank you very much! What has that accomplished to change their inappropriate behaviour and their poor emotional and social skills.

Expelling students doesn’t really address the needs of the victim or wrong doer either. Oh, expelling students from school removes the students from school, but doesn’t change their behavior or address their needs related to the cause of their inappropriate behaviour. Now to be fair, there are programs in place for students who are expelled and want to continue their education. Students call these places the last- chance -school where they learn things like anger management. Usually kids who are on probation go to those schools as a requirement of their probation, at least that’s what the kids tell me. Other kids who are expelled from school just drop out feeling more disrespectful, disempowered and disconnected from school and take their unresolved issues with them into the community. But since school and the community are inter-related, these unresolved issues continue to affect the school.

Now of course not all of the wrong doers will want to participate in the restorative justice process and some wrong doers will pose serious safety risks . In those cases, restorative justice calls for authorities to impose consequences that are reasonable, restorative, and respectful of the wrong doer, the victim or victims and the community. They need to be in a safe settng that emphasis the values of safety, responsibility, accountability and civility where they can learn empathy and other skills that will enable them to make productive contributions to society and lead a more satisfying life.

Some schools have begun to implement the restorative justice process to try to make their schools a safer place. Almaguin Highland Secondary School, a rural school near North Bay has been using the restorative justice process for the last couple of years and has been so encouraged by the results that they have expanded it to use student trained facilitators. The process at the Almaguin Highlands Secondary School begins with a conference in a neutral place in the school, not the principals office, and is attended by the victim and the offender, each with support people such as parents, a facilitator trained in the process , a vice-principle and sometimes a police liaison. Others people like custodians, bus drivers, friends of the student who are affected by the incident can also attend. They all sit in a circle facing one another during the conference. Anyone can ask questions about what went on, who was affected, what others were thinking, what they think needs to be done to write this wrong.

Sean Ruddy, a former vice-principal at the Almaguin Highland Secondary School notes that the process is not punitive. It’s inclusive and brings the offender back into the school community with an agreement to move on. Sometimes the solutions are simple; sometimes the solutions are more serious and could involve things like anger management counseling. Anger management counseling does work. I’ve had students in my senior classes who have participated in anger management counseling,and they’ve have told me that it was helpful . In conversations during the semester, these kids would tell me how they would have handled situations in the past before anger management counseling and how they handle situation now after participating in the counseling. I find that so encouraging to actually see these kids deal with the vicissitudes of daily life in a healthier way.

It’s important to note that the resolution to the issue happens with the participation and agreement of everyone in the circle. It is not something that is done to the offender like a punishment that is imposed by a higher authority. The participants in the circle all have equal standing and the resolution is a function of everyone there. Once the resolution has been arrived at, the participants break bread so to speak and enjoy snacks while waiting for the facilitator to type up the agreement so that it can be signed by everyone. Then everyone who participated in the circle can hold the person accountable.

The Waterloo Region DSB also has a restorative justice program in most of their schools. The program takes a different form that the one used by Almaguin Secondary. Students are sent to the offfice to complete a form that requires them to reflect upon what they have done, who was hurt by the action and what they can do to rectify the situation.The Waterloo Board also has a Making Amends program. In this program wrong doers do not get suspended but instead are required to reflect upon what they have done and the impact that their actions have had.The Board also has provided restorative justice process training to the 100 police officers who work in the schools. It’s nice to see that Lynn Zammit, the co-ordinator for the Waterloo’s restorative project was honoured for her contribution to the project’s success by a provincial Attorney Genera’s Victim Services Award of Distinction.

It’s time to expand the restorative justice process to include all the schools in the province. We know that it works. We owe it to all students to do all we possibly can to help schools become a safer place. We owe it to all students to teach them the emotional and social skills that will enable them to have a more satisfying, productive life. The restorative justice process has demonstrated that it can do this. Let’s have the will to do this and we’ll find the way.

Ron Claassin’s article “Fundamental Principles” and Melodie McCullough’s article “Restoring Justice for Safer Schools” in the December 2007 Issue of Professionally Speaking were used as references in writing this post. I have created a link to each so that you can read their articles in full. Both, are well worth taking the time to read in full.

 
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