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Q&A
Issue resolution in schools without restorative justice programs
7:46:17
ยท
114 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph asks students how issues are resolved in schools without restorative justice programs. Students share their experiences with punitive approaches to conflict resolution.
- One school relies heavily on police presence to handle conflicts
- Another school primarily uses suspensions to deal with conflicts, even for minor issues
- A student reported that their school administration called police during a peaceful student walkout
Rita Joseph
7:46:17
Well, thank you for that.
7:46:18
And those who have no type of restorative justice in your buildings, how are issues, if you have a problem, how are they resolved?
Janice C.
7:46:26
Well, in my school, as I asserted in my testimony, it's a lot of police, and because my school doesn't have restorative justice, when I joined programs like the Yaya Network, or the Circle Keepers, or the Dignity in Schools Coalition, it really shows the absence of the absence of restorative justice in schools is so detrimental.
7:46:49
When I came to these programs, I was astonished about how nurturing, how caring restorative justice is towards students, and that's why we are all here, me and my peers are here to talk to you, who we know is like a champion for restorative justice, and to really advocate for this funding because we all know that it's needed and I know personally that it's needed.
Rita Joseph
7:47:16
Thank you all for your testimony.
7:47:18
Oh, go ahead.
Serahi D.
7:47:20
Go ahead.
Hadia A.
7:47:21
In my school, the school administration primarily deals with conflict through suspensions.
7:47:28
Like I said in my in my testimony, they handed out a lot of suspensions during regions week for very for things that weren't like serious conflict.
7:47:37
It was more just to like intimidate students.
7:47:40
And in other cases where it was mainly conflict between administration and the students themselves and not violent, there was an instance where there it was a peaceful walkout in June and my administration called like actual police, like cop cars on us and it was just it wasn't even SSAs because they were just standing there.
7:48:01
They don't do much but like they called actual police cars on us.
Rita Joseph
7:48:08
Sorry you had to go through that.
7:48:10
Thank you so much.