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Q&A
Conflict resolution in schools with and without restorative justice
8:12:53
·
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph asks about conflict resolution in schools without restorative justice. Youth advocates share their experiences and perspectives on the differences between schools with and without restorative justice practices.
- Schools without restorative justice often use suspensions and detentions to address conflicts
- Youth advocates highlight the negative impacts of punitive measures on students' mental health and character development
- Restorative practices are described as more effective in addressing root causes of conflicts and promoting healing
- One advocate shares her experience transitioning from a charter school to a fully restorative school, emphasizing the positive impact of student voice in restorative settings
Rita Joseph
8:12:53
Love that, love that.
8:12:56
In schools without restorative justice, how do you address conflict?
Amina J.
8:13:02
So a lot of the time in my schools they usually address like a lot of the more violent or serious conflicts with suspensions or some type of disruption from their learning.
8:13:14
And it's definitely like emotionally taxing to see these things go on and I could only imagine how much more taxing it is for the children going through it.
8:13:22
And I think that punishing them and not exploring their character or what drives them to do some of the things that they do is dangerous to their mental health and dangerous to their character building.
Amber C.
8:13:34
For me, I have seen both the best worlds.
8:13:36
I went to a charter school for my middle and elementary school and for high school I went to a fully restorative school.
8:13:42
And I would say for a charter school, the teachers didn't want to do nothing.
8:13:45
It would be simple detention or sometimes even suspension for something that could have simply had a conversation.
8:13:54
And they were so easy and they even had a point system on students.
8:13:57
And it would be like if you talk at a turn, you get points taken away from you, and they really just showed like that hierarchy and like that oh, teacher's pet type of ideology.
8:14:09
And when I went to a fully restorative school, you know, students' voices mattered, and the benefit was the organization I work with now, the Circle Keepers.
8:14:18
Now we get to help and train youth throughout many schools and throughout all the DOE, and I think if we didn't have the support with restorative justice that it could have died simply, but now I get to be here speaking and you know with all the youth in this cohort, I just I feel like restorative schools brought us here today.
Serahi D.
8:14:39
I want to add on to what she said.
8:14:41
I feel suspensions and expulsions even, detentions, these are all seen as, like, in many schools, like, the only way.
8:14:49
And that's not those are not the best case because a lot of us, all of us students here today, we all have stories, multiple stories of how these, like, aggressive measures have affected us.
8:14:59
And I just wish restorative justice and like, wish there was more emphasis on healing because he when schools are places for healing, they become places for learning.
8:15:08
So I wish there was more emphasis on that because that that has effect that has been a bigger best effect for us.
8:15:15
Like, I've seen how like, just simply talking out your emotions, I've seen how things have people have become aggressive to more responsive.
8:15:24
So I wish there was more emphasis on that in our schools.
Rita Joseph
8:15:29
Thank you.
8:15:29
Well said.
8:15:30
I gotta use that.
8:15:32
Thank you so much.
8:15:33
Oh, you have something.
8:15:34
Go ahead.
Emily D.
8:15:35
Yeah.
8:15:35
So when I entered to my new high school, there was no restorative justice, but now that I see they are implementing more.
8:15:43
Before that, there was more restorative justice, students will get suspended even if you film a fight and you even were involved in that fight.
8:15:52
And and a friend of that told me that he got suspended, and that caused him to basically fail his marking period.
8:16:03
And he told me that he was just filming the the fight, And it wasn't, like, in the school buildings or anything like that.
8:16:10
And he had no right to speak or, like, to give his point of what happened, and he got suspended due to that.
8:16:18
But now if there's, like, any issue in our schools, they are trying to implement more, like, what what happened, like like both sides perspectives.
8:16:31
So we see that now our community has been growing and I want that for every single school to being able to implement restorative justice so there is peace in schools.