restorative practices

We recently had the director from our local restorative justice agency come to speak at our church council meeting about restorative practices in schools.  The agency has been active in our county for a number of years – I think that they have been working with our juvenile justice program for about the last 10 years, and they have also been called into various schools in the county over the last few years on a case-by-case basis.  We had heard that they were working with an elementary school up in the northern part of our county, in implementing a restorative practices program, and we were interested in that as our church was recently offered some seed money by one of our members for funding some type of social justice outreach with a local school, and our council has also been looking for ways to become more involved with issues and needs within our local community, in general.

I’ve been intrigued by the concept of restorative justice, and the practices and tools involved, with gathering the affected community (or representatives of the affected community) together with the direct victims and the alleged offenders together. Of the circle process which allows for open and honest sharing of feelings about the situation or incident, and also allows for the collective wisdom of those gathered to rise and allow for creative and just solutions to be discussed and agreed upon, leading to reconciliation, healing and accountability for all involved. The recidivism rate of juveniles who openly and willingly enter into this process, rather than the normal criminal justice process, is amazingly low, at least in our county.

The agency has been working with a school, and developing a program, of bringing some of the restorative practices into the school, to teach and equip school administrators and teachers how to use the practices first among their selves, on working through what might otherwise become heated issues and situations, and then on working with the student body, with the goal, it seems to me, of a cultural change within the school of how problems and issues are handled and resolved.  It seems to me that if it is done right, it should help foster an awareness, respect and trust for each other, as fellow human beings, an awareness of being in community with each other and an understanding of how even small and seemingly inconsequential or careless actions can cause an undesirable effect in the fabric of that community. There is also a component of the program that involves the students’ parents as well, as they are also part of the school community.

It’s probably not a surprise that one of the most pervasive problems in schools is verbal bullying, among and between all levels, including between school boards and school administrations, between administrators and teachers, between administrators/teachers and students, as well as between students.  When they go into a school to work with a school on restorative practices, they start with the administration and the teachers first, because a change in practices, attitudes and atmosphere at the top levels is felt by students.

Restorative practices can also be used by schools and organizations as part of an organizational change management type process when implementing new programs, to help handle and resolve fears and issues that often arise during program implementations and major changes in the workplace, so there can be a lot of benefits to an organization like a school, in addition to the general reduction of classroom problems, vandalism and other forms of acting out by students.

Our Peace with Justice Sunday was centered around the concepts of restorative justice and restorative practices, as an introduction/re-acquaintance of the concepts to our congregation and the beginning of a dialog opportunity between church council and the congregation about whether we should sponsor this program for one of our local elementary schools.  On the whole, our congregation is very supportive of this idea.  Our council will be moving ahead with further dialog between the agency and the principal of one of our local elementary schools, where the principal is aware of the concept and is open to bringing it into her school.

peace,

lorna