Restorative Justice to Transform School Culture

"Restorative Practices do more than supplant punitive approaches to discipline. They can dramatically improve the school climate and strengthen the social and emotional skills of young people and adults. Instead of using punishments and rewards to influence the way students behave, restorative approaches address the underlying reasons for students’ hurtful behavior and nurture their intrinsic desire to treat others with care and respect (Edutopia)."

SUHSD Board Policy

LCAP Goal 2, Action 3: ... a strategic focus on anti-racism, implicit bias, and intersectionality will be the topics for affinity group and cross-group dialogue and learning. This will create the space for different groups to hear and see each other's experiences and build coalitions.

LCAP Goal 3, Action 1: All school sites will be provided with positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), and professional learning for trauma-informed, healing-centered, culturally responsive restorative practices, and transformative social-emotional learning.

LCAP Goal 3, Action 3: An equitable, inclusive learning environment will be established and strengthened with restorative justice practices; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), alternatives to suspension and other means of correction.

State Guidance for New Laws on Discipline

• It is further the intent of the Legislature that the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which includes:

  • restorative justice practices

  • trauma-informed practices

  • social and emotional learning, and

  • schoolwide positive behavior interventions and support

Restorative Justice is a set of practices that challenges us to develop solutions from our authentic selves. Grounded in indigenous peacemaking traditions from across the Americas and training with the National Compadres Network's Cultura Cura, Restorative Justice Partners, and Building Healthy Communities - Monterey County, many Salinas practitioners follow the approach as circle keepers.

In society, an RJ approach opens up possibilities for addressing harm and wrongdoing that don’t involve criminalization. In educational settings, RJ provides alternatives to punitive discipline, which in turn promotes positive school culture including safety, emphasis on learning and creativity, respect, and responsibility.

At SUHSD, we aim to integrate RJ at all levels:

Tier I RELATE circles help students, teachers and staff relate to one another, build community, learn and practice empathy.

Tier 2 REPAIR circles, conversations, and mediations address harm and conflict, recover, repair the relationship, make agreements for moving forward.

Tier 3 RESTORE circles welcome students who have been suspended or are returning from juvenile detention/extended absence.

We also aim to train students leaders to lead circles with their peers in classrooms, advisories, and after school programs, as well as at community events with adults and elders.

While focusing on interpersonal dynamics, we simultaneously address systemic forces of poverty, racial discrimination, intergenerational trauma, and other oppression. Restorative Justice is aligned with movements and campaigns that challenge white supremacy, male dominance, U.S. imperialism, environmental destruction, and economic exclusion. RJ at SUHSD is a space to learn, practice, and dream our collective freedom into being.

RJ philosophy and practice are antithetical to the violence of our contemporary world, and circle-keepers inevitably face resistance from youth who have known danger and mistrust. Circle process often demands a level of vulnerability that assumes a foundation of trust. Sitting in circle can be unfamiliar, awkward, and uncomfortable. For adolescents in a high school context, it may not always be safe to respond to a discussion prompt in front of their peers. There may be social consequences (bullying, teasing, threats) that are invisible to adult educators. At SUHSD, we are gradually, deliberately, and collectively working to create new and necessary norms of peace, safety, caring, inclusion, wellness, and respect.

References:

• Fremont High School, Oakland & EdSource

• SUHSD Restorative Justice 2022-2023 Implementation Plan, Background Information and Training Slides

• Anti-Racism Lessons