Taylin Tyler

September 19, 2020

SCJ 180 75

Applied Project

Educational Policies

Do you think that it’s important for schools to implement some kind of restorative justice

practice? Do you think that it should be implemented on all levels (elementary, middle, high,

and universities)? Having some kind of educational policies is needed when you are dealing with

young adults. However, I am looking at specifically educational polices implementing restorative

justice practices in the alternative schools. Why an alternative school? Alternative school don’t

really get the attention that other schools receive. Alternative schools typically are on the back

burner. An alternative school is a normal school that does provide the “traditional” learning

experience. There are many reasons why students attend. It ranges from being able to have

smaller classes, more flexible schedules and graduation requirements, needs more support and

guidance, difficult life circumstances, social or behavioral difficulties and more.

However, in this case I am looking to work with the company Adelphoi. This program is

one of the largest service providers for the youth. Adelphoi has many different branches from

residential, foster and adoption, in-home, and education. If you go to the website all you notice

that there are a lot of different sayings. They highlight making a change for the youth. They offer

outcome-based solutions for abused, neglected, delinquent and other at-risked children and their

families. They really focus on restoring families and helping people become better. This

company focuses on being the solution, practicing stewardship, being the value person that they

need, embracing innovation and pursing excellence. When you relate this back to the aspect of
catholic social teaching and restorative justice, the principle that comes to mind is life and

dignity of a human person as well as rights and responsibilities. The reason these two principles

connect week with restorative justice practices is because these elements connect well. When

you think about life and dignity for a human being, you have to take account for all parties

involved. At the end of the day you have to protect the rights of everyone. Life and dignity of a

human being helps people understand that everyone should be treated with respect. So, if you

treat someone like trash or do something wrong to them, you deserve hearing them out. The

thing is rights and responsibilities. This is very important in connection with restorative justice

practices because this makes the offenders take ownership and responsibility for the crime they

committed. Taking responsibility and ownership is a huge part of growth. Developing and

understanding how things affect the people around you is the most important part of restorative

justice.

Restorative justice practices can have a huge impact on student lives. These practices

teach these individuals that everything they do will have an effect on someone else. In an article,

it highlights that implementing restorative justice practice helps builds and nurture relationships,

repair the harm that was done to the relationships because of certain behaviors, as well as

allowing teachers to better understand and communicate with their students (Hopkins, 2002). It’s

important to note that the restorative justice practices help teachers just as well as the students.

However, there is the idea that teachers must be trained to those handle situations. Those

practices require a lot of communication. You must make sure that you know how to approach

the situation without doing any more harm. Another article highlights how implementing

restorative justice practices within their university has helped their community grow. The

community would rather have less punitive punishments, so using restorative justice practices is
the best way to go (Ahlin, Gibbs, Kavanaugh, & Lee 2015). These authors completed a survey

asking university students on rather implementing these practices would be beneficial or not.

Although they only did a simple sample, major of the students agree for having those practices

added. They highlighted the needs for those practices when students commit crimes that just

aren’t as huge. A crime that would be considered huge is sexual misconduct. However, you can

still implemental the restorative justice practice even if that particular individual is being kicked

off campus or more. In the event that the person is not removed from the campus the restorative

justice practice helps the community, the victim, and the offender for when it’s time for that

person to return back into the community. As noted in the article, “restorative justice re-entry

circles represent a promising approach the reintegration of students, taking into account the

needs of the survivor, the student who violated the policy and the safety concern of the campus

community” (McMahon, Karp, & Mulhen, 2019). One of the important facts about this article is

that they highlighted that restorative justice responses may offer a more humane response for all

the parties involved, and one that is better aligned with institutional goals of education and

student development (McMahon, Karp, & Mulhen, 2019). Implementing these practices in

school can be beneficial for all. You just have to make sure everyone is able to de-escalate anger,

etc., encourage reconciliation and try to influence better and healthier decision making (Mullet,

2014). Students will be able to control themselves and learn better ways to behave. This allows

families to be involved and for everyone to be on the same page. Sometimes these practices will

allow everyone to have a better understanding of each other (Pakan, 2007). If you constantly do

regular disciplinary actions will anyone actually learn?

There is a huge debate on rather restorative justice practices will be different from other

disciplinary actions that schools take. The only disciplinary actions that you hear the most about
in school is suspensions or in school suspensions. Restorative justice practices can help reduce

the suspension rates. When these students are being suspended, they are missing out on learning

opportunities and possibly setting them behind. In a study, many students liked that idea of

restorative justice circles (Yuhas, 2016). Students are more likely to take responsibility and

ownership for their actions when they are being addressed rather than just being sent home.

When you are at home while on suspension, you are not going to think about what you did to this

person. While you are in school, you have to face the person you did wrong, hear them out, and

commit to a plan that betters the relationship between everyone. An important thing to highlight

is researchers suggest that successful peer mediation programs (restorative justice practices) can

help, provide a structure for students to handle conflicts, reduce discipline referrals, help promote

understandings and sensitivity to others, increase student interest in the justice and legal system,

and develop a life skill that enables students to treat others with more respect and communicate

more effectively (Varnham, 2005). Why would you suspend children when you have the

opportunity to better someone’s life? Another thing that I think is important to mention is that,

you don’t know everyone’s home life. People could be in abusive homes and going to school can

be their break for a couple hours a day. Suspending them make cause more harm than good.

There just need to be a thought process of what you are sending these children home too.

Mentioned in another article schools are starting to use more punitive discipline practices to

control behavior, even despite the idea of having restorative justice practices around (Payne &

Welch, 2015). One of the things that this article highlights is race, mainly the minorities. There

are the idea that black/minorities students are more likely to respond well to restorative justice

practices rather than punitive disciplinary practices. The article highlights that “statistics indicate

that these policies have not manifested in a measurable impact on school violations or violence”
(Payne & Welch, 2015). The traditional disciplinary practices are not working, which in the end

isn’t helping the student evolve into a better person.

Lastly, we have this idea that restorative justice practices work on all genders. There are

no gender differences. Many people have this conception that guys are not going to take these

practices as serious as women and that women may be too overbearing. Neither of these

statements are true. However, there is the idea that because boys are more likely to be the ones

getting trouble in school, they are going to be the one that really test the idea of restorative

justice practices. Although that may be the case, all genders can benefit from restorative justice

practices. Both male and female can be the offender as well as the victim. No one should be

excluded from restorative justice practices no matter what gender they are. We have to approach

all restorative justice practices the same, unless the need to be approached differently.

Overall, it’s important that we implement restorative justice practices in school. These

practices can help individuals grow. These students may possibility remember their schools

giving them a second chance for a lifetime. It’s way better to communicate your problems away

instead of holding on to it which could eventually cause a lot of other problems down the line.

Students will have a better understanding of each other as well as the teachers have an

understanding of all the students. Restorative justice practices allow the students to come up with

their own punishment if needed. These practices help developmental skills, ultimately maturing

each individual student.

 Why

The next question you are probably wondering is why? Why would I take an interest in

implementing more practices that help troubled kids? The reason why I am so interested in this

particular area is because most schools do things different. Trouble children are always the ones

that are getting left behind. I’ve always taken an interested in emotionally troubled kids because

they have deeper problems than most people know. They seem like they are having a constant

battle with themselves on a daily. I think that everyone deserves a fair chance to learn from past

mistakes and take ownership. Some of these individuals might not even have the right guidance

or someone they could look up too. It’s so important to have a go to person in times of need and

sadly not everyone has that. They sometimes are dismissed because of their behavior which I

think is wrong. I wanted to be able to implement different resources around the alternative

schools that might not already be around. I think that it is important to have open communication

with students, especially those children with troubled background. Given the fact that I am

interested in alternative schools, this takes things to a different level. Reason being is because

you have kids who may have gotten kicked out of their home schools. These needs to be an open

relationship on all levels. Since it is an alternative school with emotionally troubled children, you

should expect there to be some kinds of problems. What I would like to do if have different

session that help both offenders and victims. The offender can have a one on one talk with the

teachers or supervised adult as well as the victim. Sometimes it might be best to talk one on one

because people may react differently when it’s a bigger group. I also want to implement doing

things like a check list, making sure that the offender is following all the rules that was asked of

them. Despite working with the kids, I think that there should be a training program incorporated

with the teacher’s daily schedule. Once they complete the training then they would be able to
conduct their own restorative justice session. The reason why I think it’s important to have these

trainings is because we want the teachers to have an understanding on which way is the best

ways to approach the situation. Not everyone is going to react the same way, so the teacher

would need to have the flexibility to work with all kinds of personalities. Another thing I would

want to implement is a meditation circle. I recently learned that meditating, it helps reduce a lot

of stress, anxiety, anger, and has a lot of health benefits. Having a mediation circles gives people

the opportunity to relax when they are dealing with hardships in their lives. Accomplishing this

wouldn’t be easy but it is different possible. As mentioned before, everyone needs to be on that

same page and in some kind of agreeance that these practices are ultimately helping. Suspensions

just aren’t the best things to do. We have to start holding these children accountable for their

actions. (adding meditation, reduces stress)

Sources

Hopkins, B. (2002) Restorative justice in schools. Supporting for Learning, 17(3) 144-149

Yuhas, D. (2018) Restorative justice is about more than just reducing suspensions. The

Hechinger Report

https://www.adelphoi.org/

Varnham, S. (2005). Seeing things differently: Restorative justice and school discipline.

Education and the Law, 17(3), 87-104

Payne, A. A. & Welch, K. (2015) Restorative justice in schools: The influence of race on

restorative discipline. Youth& Society, 47(4) 539-564

Ahlin, M. E., Gibbs, C. J., Kavanaugh, R. P., & Lee, P. (2015) Support for restorative justice in a

sample of u.s university students. International Journal of Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology, 6(2), 229-225

Mullet, H. J. (2014) Restorative discipline: From getting even to getting well. Children &

Schools, 36(3) 157-162

Pakan, N. (2007) Restorative justice community/classroom conferencing: A guide for parents

and teachers. The Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities. 1-19