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Q&A
Impact of restorative justice and student activism in schools
8:33:23
ยท
155 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the impact of restorative justice in schools. Students share their experiences with restorative justice programs, or the lack thereof, and discuss a recent student protest and its resolution through dialogue.
- Some schools lack formal restorative justice programs, leading students to seek outside resources
- A large school's restorative justice team is not well-known among the student body
- Students describe how dialogue with administrators was more effective than police presence in addressing protest concerns
- Some schools have implemented restorative justice curricula, but funding remains an issue for sustainability
Rita Joseph
8:33:23
Anyone else?
8:33:23
No?
8:33:25
What are the impacts of having restorative justice in your buildings?
Marilyn P.
8:33:30
As of right now, there really isn't anything related to restorative justice in my school.
8:33:35
That's why I applied for, like, outside.
8:33:38
So as
Yvel Nunez
8:33:38
of right now, I'm with
Marilyn P.
8:33:39
the CIA CAE, the Center of Anti Violence Education, where we meet once a week and we talk about, like, different things, like like, violence in our city or, like, ways we could prevent prevent these stuff.
8:33:52
So that's why I attend the program I attend today because as of right now, my school doesn't have anything related to restorative justice.
Rita Joseph
8:33:59
Mhmm.
8:34:00
Go ahead.
Kailin
8:34:03
So even though I said that my school has a restorative justice team, it's not well known in my school.
8:34:09
My school has like 5,000 people and I'm pretty sure it's only second to Brooklyn Technical High School.
8:34:15
However, I would like to mention a conflict that happened between peaceful protesters who walked out of our school and the administration.
8:34:22
So we had several walkouts and after each walkout, more and more NYPD cars came and at a certain point there were more NYPD officers than there were And only until students who were organizing the walkouts met with the administrators was something achieved.
8:34:44
Then we were able to get our demands and they were able to filter how many walkouts we had.
8:34:50
There has definitely been less ever since we had that meeting so it goes to show that instead of using police to stop our walkouts, having a conversation with us and compromising with us is more effective.
Rita Joseph
8:35:02
So what the walk what did you walk out about?
Kailin
8:35:06
For the genocide in Palestine.
8:35:07
Okay.
Blaise H.
8:35:10
I would like to add on to Kai.
8:35:12
My school has a restorative justice curriculum.
8:35:15
We have emotionally and emotions and equity classes that start freshman year where student leaders basically teach the freshmen basically anything about emotions and equity.
8:35:26
The thing about our school is the fact that this is an initiative that was taken on by our principal and this is not funded by New York State.
8:35:34
And so that's why I believe that it hasn't been as successful as it could be, and that's why we're here today to basically ask you for
Ashton T.
8:35:41
that funding.
Rita Joseph
8:35:41
So you've seen models, just that some of the models are not successful.
Blaise H.
8:35:45
Yes.
8:35:45
I believe that it's not as sustainable as it could be it was given enough money.
8:35:50
And I like to add on that the student leaders who do sign up are being paid by this opportunity and that's why we have so many student leaders with us.