Tag Archives: restorative justice

Restorative Practices in Response to Bullying Gain a Slight Foothold in Schools

Posted on by
Reply

School has been back in session in the U.S. for awhile now and officials are dealing with bullying issues once again.

There is spotty evidence that some districts are looking beyond Zero Tolerance policies and automatic expulsion or suspension of kids who bully their classmates. In these districts, there is a conscious policy choice to use restorative practices first instead of punitive practices such as expulsion and suspension.

In the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, School District, schools are implementing a comprehensive change program to address bullying, known as the SaferSanerSchools Whole School Change Program, developed by the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP).

Rather than reflexively opt for immediate expulsion or suspension of kids who bully others, these districts are attempting to bring the bullied and the bully together with all their classmates into restorative circles to address the misbehavior as a community. The goal is accountability and community restoration rather than isolation, alienation, suspension, expulsion and stigmatization. It’s a first step toward interrupting the schools-to-prison pipeline.

It’s a risky proposition, and it takes more time than a rigid “throw the bully out” approach. But it holds the real possibility of keeping the bullying offender and the bullying victim together in community, rather than placing one more child in the school-to-prison pipeline. The statistics on expulsion and suspension are clear: each incident of suspension or expulsion increases the child’s chances of ending up in prison.

Programs such as SaferSanerSchools requires participation of the entire school community, from students and teachers to administrators, parents and even cafeteria and janitorial staffs. Successful implementation requires involvement of the entire community, since bullying affects everyone in the school community.

In one dramatic example:

Suspensions, expulsions, fights, bullying and other forms of poor student behavior dropped at Freedom and Liberty high schools during the 2011-12 school year, documents show.
The improved discipline picture is a reversal of 2009-10 and 2010-11 when infractions went up in the Bethlehem Area School District‘s two high schools as part of a district-wide increase of 36 percent.
Compared with the 2010-11 school year, suspensions dropped 20 percent to 978 in 2011-12. The number of students in suspension three times or more went down 43 percent to 493 at the two high schools over the same time frame, according to the Code of Conduct report, which separates offenses into three levels of severity.

Restorative practices and restorative circles allow the victims to be heard, the harms done to them to be recognized. Restorative practices even permit the bully to say why he or she was aggressive in the first place. Using restorative practices, all members of the community share in the process, expressing their experiences of the harms that have been done by the bullying of their fellow community members. All members of the community, all stakeholders, share a part in the communal response.

Ideally, even the parents of the bully and the bullied are present for the restorative circle conference. For restorative practices to have their maximum effect, all parties participate in these restorative circles, or accountability sessions, as the community asserts its values. Ideally, the bully and the bullied are restored to community and neither is stigmatized or ostracized.

For more information about restorative practices, contact:
IIRP Graduate School
531 Main St.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
(610) 807-9221

$6,800 lost per school student drop-out – and how Restorative Justice can stop the losses

Posted on by
Reply

Editor’s Note:  It’s a treat to welcome back Jeannette Holtham as a guest blogger.  In making a case for exposing every school student and faculty member to restorative justice practices, she offers a “dollars and sense” rationale.  Jeannette may be reached at youthtransformationcenter@gmail.com.  If you like what she says, please post a comment here or drop her an email.

Colorado advocate of Restorative Justice practices in schools, Jeannette Holtham

Guest blogger Jeannette Holtham testified in support of SB 12-046 for restorative justice practices in Colorado schools.

Here’s a great math and logic problem:

 If a school loses $6,800 for each student that drops out of school, why would that school overuse suspension, expulsion or police ticketing that has contributed to the average 50% dropout rate in major metro cities across America?

I see you’re scratching your head on this one.  Okay, let’s add some examples to the equation just because I know you’re up for the challenge.  [pullquote]When Howard Zehr’s book Changing Lenses fell into Jeannette Holtham’s lap more than a decade ago—literally, from a library bookshelf—she began to read.  “The light just went on,” she says, as she read about this intriguing concept of restorative justice, a way to get offenders to be accountable for behaviors while making sure those they’d harmed got their needs met.[/pullquote]

 

 

An elementary school student accidentally breaks a knickknack on a teacher’s desk resulting in a police ticket for “criminal mischief.”  An 11-year-old swings a bean bag in the classroom and it slips out of his hands and hits the teacher.  The child is arrested for “third degree assault.”  A high school student puts a small cardboard soup container into a microwave to heat and doesn’t notice that it contains a thin foil sheet under the cover.

After it burns out the microwave the student is permanently expelled for “destroying school property.”  How about this one:  four brothers and sisters don’t come to school for six weeks.  The school files truancy charges and tells the students never to come back.  It’s discovered weeks later that the single Mom couldn’t afford shoes for her children.  Unfortunately, these are true stories from Colorado.[pullquote]Before she could take action on what she’d learned, however, she underwent a near-death, life-altering experience during surgery.  With a second chance to live, after twelve weeks of recovery, she went skydiving, a metaphor for her promise to God and the Universe to take more risks to help youth, particularly those dealing with high-risk factors such as suspension, expulsion, and incarceration. [/pullquote]

It doesn’t take a math whiz to see that the bottom line is red.  We taxpayers fund these ineffective punitive responses to wrongdoing (and believe you me, they are more prevalent than any of us would care to imagine).  Thankfully, restorative justice is a worldwide movement reaching critical mass and offers a powerful tool for those educators who are committed to keeping kids in school.  [pullquote]In 2005 Jeannette launched Youth Transformation Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring youth to leave risky behaviors behind and move toward healthier, more fulfilling lifestyles.  In her curriculum called “Boomerang,” teens invent a big dream for their lives and get re-energized about school as a stepping stone in their action plan for life.[/pullquote] There’s even hope for America where we have the highest incarceration rate in the “civilized” world, where 2,300 people who went to prison before the age of 17 are serving life without parole, and where we seem to have no problem paying $68,000 a year to lock up a juvenile but have a big problem paying $6,800 to keep that child in school.

Restorative justice (RJ) exists to provide a safe, respectful circle dialog where offenders come face to face with those they’ve harmed in order to take responsibility for their behaviors and repair the harm to the greatest extent possible.  Victims get to be heard, and together they come up with meaningful, relevant consequences for the offender, and they sign an agreement that is closely monitored by a facilitator to its conclusion.  It works because it gives a school student a chance to return to the learning community with honor having done the right thing.  It’s reducing discipline by as much as 60% even in high-risk, dangerous schools.  Sadly, there are still many schools that have never heard of restorative justice which puts forth the challenge to all of us to alert our schools and educators to the worldwide grassroots movement of restorative justice now reaching critical mass.[pullquote] Her book could just as easily have been titled How to Put Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Back into School Budgets.[/pullquote]  This practical, no-nonsense guide gets right to the heart of how to keep school students  in the classroom and stop the school-to-prison pipeline.

[amazon_enhanced asin="0982270615" /] Taking Restorative Justice to Schools: A Doorway to Discipline is the first practical, comprehensive “how to” guide for schools that want to launch a restorative justice component to their current discipline systems—a great teacher gift and now available online for $19.95 at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Oprah Winfrey Network reprises ‘Confronting’ series featuring victim-offender face-to-face conferences

Posted on by
1

Victim-offender conferences are a primary tool used in restorative justice programs. Tonight (Sept. 17, 2011) at 10 p.m. Eastern time, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will reprise its Confronting series, featuring an example of a victim-offender conference.

Tonight’s episode features the face-to-face meeting between a mother whose son was killed on his prom night and the woman whose impaired driving under the influence caused his death.

According to the OWN website:

“Confronting… documents the powerful and sometimes painful mediation process, where victim and offender come together to find some measure of closure. Mediation programs currently exist in 48 states across the country, and with each encounter the results are dramatic and life changing for both the victim and the offender. Every episode will follow both victim and offender as they prepare to come together, face to face, for the most important conversation of their lives.”

At the risk of seeming picky, practitioners of restorative justice often differentiate between the term “mediation” and the process they call “victim-offender conferencing,”  although the face-to-face conferences certainly involve elements of mediation.  The terminology has evolved as restorative practices have been introduced and followed.

Here is a sneak preview of tonight’s program.

http://www.oprah.com/common/omplayer_embed.html?article_id=30608

Unfortunately, access to this excellent program is limited to pay-TV subscribers whose cable packages include Oprah’s network. It’s another example of the digital divide.
[amazon_enhanced asin="1561485861" /]

Former State Supreme Court Justice Calls for Restorative Justice to Repair Harm in Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse

Posted on by
Reply

Judge Janine P. Geske, former Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, is calling on the Roman Catholic Church to use restorative justice practices to address the many harms caused by the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

Judge Janine P. Geske urges Roman Catholics to use Restorative Justice in clergy sexual abuse scandal

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine P. Geske has applied

Reported in a lengthy article in the August issue of the Saint Anthony Messenger, on AmericanCatholic.org, the proposal to employ the methods of restorative justice is nothing new for the longtime jurist, now a distinguished professor of law at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.  The law school supports a Restorative Justice Initiative.

Judge Geske envisions using a restorative justice approach in relationships beyond the offending priests and their victims. Parishoners in congregations where the sexual abuse occurred are also in need of healing, she asserts.

“The whole approach here is: Who was harmed and what is the ripple effect of that harm?” explains Judge Geske.  In much the same way victims of sexual abuse are told, “Just let go of it and move on,” congregations whose priests and young parishioners were involved in the scandal are also expected to act as if the harms already have been healed.

The effort is to promote understanding and healing,
to whatever degree possible, to both victims and criminals.  It can be applied in any situation, including the Church.

‘Beyond Prisons’ shines a light on alternatives to prison

Gallery

Posted on by

For anyone interested in alternatives to prison — as in, something other than “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” — there’s a gold mine of information and insight into the criminal justice system in the current issue of … Continue reading →

Beyond Phenomenal Forgiveness: A Mother’s Relationship with Her Son’s Killer

Posted on by
4
Victim-offender Johnson Israel

Mary Johnson, 59, spoke with Oshea Israel, 34, at StoryCorps in Minneapolis.

Ginny H., a friend of this blog, shared this story (<—click here) from National Public Radio's StoryCorps. If you missed the NPR broadcast this morning, I urge you to invest the time to read and listen to this story. It begins with the gang-related murder of her son, Laramiun Byrd, and it extends from a conscious decision to forgive the killer to developing a loving relationship with him.

For people who champion Restorative Justice, this can only be a story of inspiration. Involving victims and offenders in restorative conferences early on might increase the likelihood of phenomenal outcomes like these. It is not an easy process, and not everyone in the justice system will even be willing to consider restorative options. But the story of Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel stands as a testimony to what is sometimes possible.

If you’re involved in neighborhood justice, or the local justice system — or, if you are just a concerned citizen who wants something more than orange jump suits for offenders, followed by the release of angry inmates into your community — and, if you think crime victims deserve a time of deep listening to their pain by the offender, the justice system and the community, maybe you will want to investigate local options for Restorative Justice (RJ).

RJ offers no easy grace or instantaneous forgiveness. It entails a difficult process to repair harms done, and to restore victims and offenders to a more compassionate community. The current system of warehousing of prisoners and neglecting crime victims does not seem to be working at all well. Is it time to investigate alternatives?

Parents of Troubled Teens — Start Your Search Here

Posted on by
Reply

Parents of troubled teens, and their teachers and counselors, live with the likelihood that their rapidly maturing children might soon face the court system.  Suddenly the child who seemed so full of promise might face the very real prospect of facing a juvenile court referral.  From that point, the probability of having a child in the justice system is a nagging threat.  The fear is always lurking that their “golden child”, their beloved son or daughter,  might soon face expulsion for bullying, or become a defendant in a bullying case.  Some, who fear that the taunts of their children’s classmates may be true, and that their child might really be gay, lesbian, or transgendered, worry that their kids might be bullied and suffer lifelong scars, or even death.

[amazon_enhanced asin="0979841127" /]In 21st Century America, the threat of violence is always a possibility.  Even middle-class, peaceful families know that they are not immune.  Not only in America, but in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand…in any so-called developed nation around the world, parents walk a thin line between responding to classroom discipline and facing an escalation in the system’s treatment of their child.

At fairnessworks.p1r8.net, we are looking for ways of bringing concerned parents into constructive contact — early in the process, before “juvie” or jail  — with methods of intervention and conflict resolution which can save the future of their troubled teens.  The goal of this blog is to link parents like these with well-established methods of responding to youth crises, such as Restorative Justice and peacemaking circles.  Creating a Culture of Care in the schools is a possible solution, with practitioners who know how to implement these programs.  Hope for restoration is not a false hope, and the possibility of linking to alternatives to punitive and retributive justice is a viable option.

We include a wealth of links to alternative methods at fairnessworks.  Look at the categories and tags in the column at right, click on them, read and follow up on them, if you are the parent (or concerned adult) in the life of a troubled teenager.  Post your comments here and reach out for help.  If you have read this far, you are a “seat-of-the-pants peacemaker,” and you are NOT alone.  You are the person we want to reach at fairnessworks.p1r8.net.

As the editor and publisher of this blog, I am not the counselor you might need.  But I will do my best to link you to the help you are seeking.  Remember, you are not alone.
[amazon_enhanced asin="B004R1PZNU" /]

 

A Visionary Judge Makes Restorative Justice Come Alive in Alabama

Posted on by
2

I was intrigued when a recent online search included a hit posing this question: “What if lawyers were Peacemakers, Problem Solvers and Healers of  Conflict?”

Alabama judge employs Restorative Justice in Montgomery court

Judge Tracey McCooey

A few clicks later and I was listening to Judge Tracey McCooey, who serves on the bench of Alabama’s 15th Judicial Circuit Court in Montgomery, on the website Cutting Edge Law.  (More on that in an upcoming post.)

In a six-part video series, Judge McCooey talks passionately about her believe that justice requires much more than the court system provides, especially in the area of giving crime victims the opportunity to meet the offenders, face-to-face, in a safe place, and to do so on a voluntary basis.  (If you walk out of here and find someone has stolen your car radio, chances are you don’t have much interest in meeting the thief, she says in one segment.  But the more deeply you have been hurt, the more likely you want to meet the offender and ask questions like “why?”.)

As appealing as her speaking style and warmth is her story about the unorthodox path that led her to the bench.  Serving as a judge was never in her long-range plans, but when she won her first election against a well-established Montgomery lawyer, surprising herself in the process, she knew there were some new thing she wanted to try.  Finding ways of implementing a restorative justice program was among them, and she set about methodically but quietly to make this happen.

Watch this series if you’d like to meet a judge who approaches her calling 24/7, who believes in the power of personal interaction — which has included working closely with offenders as they pick up trash, and spending her Saturday afternoons quilting with people who have passed through the drug court.

Watch the entire series, if you prefer, on this page of the Cutting Edge Law website.

To see how thoroughly the Montgomery court has integrated restorative justice principles into their programs, be sure to visit the court’s website.

“Bully” Helps Middle Schoolers Confront School Violence

Aside

 

Matthew Kuehlhorn

You might not think of a middle school counselor as a “seat-of-the-pants peacemaker.”  If your child is facing daily bullying, you might see him in a different light.  If your child is withdrawing from life, suddenly uncommunicative, maybe you think about talking to the school administration.  If you are lucky, you will find someone like Matthew Kuehlhorn.

Matthew Kuehlhorn is a Colorado middle school counselor who is passionate about helping create a community of care in schools.  He is exploring ways of implementing Restorative Justice methods in his workplace — your child’s school.  At my invitation, he submitted the following.  Recent postings in fairnessworks.p1r8.net have featured examples of programs which implement restorative, peacemaking methods.  Matthew’s efforts are a timely example of what an individual can do to help create peace.

Matthew is passionate about a graphic novel entitled, Bully.  I hope you will check this out and find ways to implement his peacemaking passions into your own local school.

Bully is an educational illustrated novel.

An illustrated novel

The book is designed to “Ignite the Voice Within” classroom, as he terms it.  Bully is an illustrated novel that teaches relationship building skills and introduces restorative justice practices and theory.

Bully is an amazing story where characters talk directly to middle school readers. The story is emotionally charged and very real for students in today’s classrooms.

After speaking with an educator who used this book in individual sessions, Matthew says, she remarked:

“I have had readers tell me that they have not finished a book in five years. They love this book and have a high interest in finishing it. The book offers great conversation topics which can affect student behavior in our school–for the better!”

Students report this book being like “real life” and the feedback has been amazing.

Bully is 130 pages, which are broken into five sections with “Ignite Now” lessons offered.  Lessons teach:  how to listen, how to tell our story so it gets heard, how to feel empathy, and the book concludes with introducing talking circles and restorative justice.

The book is authored by Teresa Milbrodt, a published short story author and Creative Writing Professor at Western State College of Colorado.  Compelling illustrations were created by Nathan Kubes, a freelance artist, also in Gunnison, CO.

What other people say about Bully:

“I had students, who had not finished a book in years, unable to put this book down.”
Middle School English Teacher

“This is like Real Life”
7th Grade Student

“I recommend this book for students, parents, teachers, counselors, administrators and those people interested in education.”
Dr. Tom Cavanagh

Dr. Tom Cavanagh

 

Dr. Cavanagh, whose current focus is on creating a “Culture of Care” in schools,  has published a review of Bully which can be viewed at:

http://restorativepracticesinschools.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-book-addresses-bullying.html

If you are a school teacher or counselor, and have ideas about reaching the potential peacemakers in your local community, please share your comments below.  I’d suggest this mental exercise:  what Google searches would your students’ parents enter to find help for their concerns troubled teens?

[amazon_carousel]

Forgiveness and Restoration Are Real: An Easter Message of Hope from Rwanda

Posted on by
1

The main focus of this blog is on local applications of peacemaking, with a special focus on examples of Restorative Justice (RJ).  My goal with this blog is to connect “seat-of-the-pants peacemakers” with groups and individuals who are a few steps further along the path of making peace and are bringing restoration to people harmed by crimes, including the victims and the offenders .

Sometimes, however, successful reconciliation happens in the most unlikely situations, where all human perceptions would tell us no peaceful solution is possible, no forgiveness likely.  For those of us who observe Resurrection Sunday (“Easter”), these successes have to remain at the center of our focus, and we just have to celebrate them when they happen.  (But, let’s face it, it is hard to find any major world religion that does not seek peace, reconciliation and forgiveness, despite the egregious actions of the extremists in their/our midst.)

Reconciliation Village, Musanze, Rwanda. Forgiveness is lived out daily in rebuilding community.

When we watched the horror of the Rwanda genocide in 1994, any hopes of reconciliation seemed impossible.  But Prison Fellowship International looked with the eyes of faith on the overwhelming brutality, and they set about doing the difficult work of putting their faith and forgiveness into practice.  So, in the ruins of the scene of some of the most brutal genocide, in the village of Musanze, Rwanda, and in five other decimated villages, Prison Fellowship International created “Reconciliation Village.”  Here, forgiveness is lived out in rebuilding community.  [Editor's Note: Click for a look at forgiveness in Uganda.

Today, dozens of former murderers and brutalizers live side-by-side with their victims, in harmony.

"Residents of the 182 homes that make-up the village of Musanze, Rwanda, work as one to grow crops and tend to livestock. The village’s community spirit may not seem unusual until you learn that within this small community live both convicted perpetrators and surviving victims of the 1994 genocide."

Map of Rwanda, Africa

The story of this seemingly impossible reconciliation is available at this link.  For anyone who doubts that reconciliation and forgiveness are unachievable, unattainable, I highly recommend this link:

http://www.pfi.org/media-and-news/news/rebuilding-in-the-aftermath-of-destruction

Read this story, and tell me we can’t address bullying and domestic abuse in the “Developed World.”  A Christian scripture reference comes to mind:  ”Go thou and do likewise.”  (If you have sacred scripture to share, select “Comment” below and share it.

But, before doing that, ponder this image:

Young boy, a victim of the Rwanda genocide. Few would have thought forgiveness possible.