Together with my Shanti Alliance Cohort, I designed a curriculum about restorative justice. 

The initial issue that the Shanti Alliance cohort identified is the lack of transparency surrounding the school's administrative processes, which causes students to be fearful of a system that is supposedly put in place for their benefit. Students are less likely to rely on the administration and deans for support if they see them as a coercion squad. For example, Punahou requires all families to read the handbook, which is the administration's way of dumping a truckload of information onto students and their families with minimal effort from the administration to make the handbook more accessible. So, we specifically included information that was not addressed thoroughly by the administration such as an overview of Punahou's Handbook and Punahou's mission statement. 

The second issue that we identified was the punishment-oriented nature of Punahou's justice system. Students likely correlate deans with discipline and punishment instead of support. While students are taught that classrooms are safe spaces in SURF, they aren't explicitly given tools to see the entire school and administration as a safe place. On the contrary, deans and administrators have told me and vocalized at assemblies that their job is to be support, and as a last resort, a disciplinary team. They want students to seek them out as a safe space. There's a clear disconnect between the student and administrative bodies. Because Restorative Justice cultivates community, my Shanti Alliance cohort identified it as a fitting supplement to Punahou's current justice system. In our curriculum, we gathered information about real disciplinary cases from the past and created a game that allowed students to model a disciplinary procedure from the restorative justice standpoint and Punahou's current system's standpoint.  

The curriculum consisted of a set of slides paired with two Kahoot games. 

Once the curriculum was finished, we contacted the SURF department and requested that we present our curriculum to the 9th grade SURF students. Combined, we taught approximately 10 classes, which is roughly 150-200 students. The most fulfilling part of this process was hearing from the SURF teacher that their students were very engaged in our lessons in comparison to their usual behavior. This demonstrates that learning from your peers boosts engagement. 

However, after finishing the SURF lessons, that was it. We only taught our Restorative Justice curriculum to one round of 9th graders. Our original idea was to excite change throughout the student body. If students change, than an administration must change with it, right? The issue is that many students simply don't have the time or want to spare the effort to be part of a cause that, on the surface, affects them minimally. High school students simply aren't built for following a cause that preaches inclusivity, community, and all that "sappy" stuff. 

Despite the failure to extend this curriculum's longevity, I learned a lot about how to communicate with people younger than me. 

After the curriculum finished its trial time in SURF and the Shanti Alliance Laulima Cohort disbanded, I began pushing for its permanent implementation into the SURF curriculum. To convince the SURF teachers of the curriculum's plausibility, I created a Restorative Justice Protocol Manual that listed a general disciplinary procedure using a restorative justice model. I also introduced this model to the 9th grade deans and a few other administrative figures. In addition, I created a Restorative Justice Teacher's Guide fit with comprehensive details about important points to mention in the presentation. I also met with a few SURF teachers to continue the conversation about making restorative justice as a permanent SURF unit. However, the school decided to move SURF into the direction of general health and wellness, and less into the direction of societal wellness and interpersonal relationships. Thus, I was informed by the SURF teachers that the restorative justice curriculum would no longer be a fit for SURF. This frustrated me, as Punahou's mission to create a mental health aware school was fading. SURF, a course originally created to cultivate healthy interpersonal relationships and provide student support is now steered in a direction of hygiene. As I was talking to the SURF teachers, they voiced to me their powerlessness in the entire situation. The trajectory shift was not their idea, and they could do nothing about it. My conversation with them really put into perspective how little power these teachers, who are the heads of SURF, really have. Punahou is built as a hierarchal system as much as we like to preach democracy. The issue is that Punahou is trying to foster a sense of equity and community whilst being built like a colonial institution. The question now becomes, where else does Restorative Justice fit into Punahou School if not in SURF classes?