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Boys at the Southside Bethlehem (PA, USA) Boys & Girls ClubTwo high school kids were on the verge of a serious fight on the basketball court, but they decided to talk it out instead. They weren’t afraid to use their words instead of their fists. They’d learned about restorative practices at Liberty High School, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, and took it with them out into the world. Winston Alozie, program director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bethlehem, told the story:
"I was in the Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent’s Committee on Diversity meeting, and people were discussing how restorative practices are working in the district. There had been a year of restorative practices implementation at Liberty and Freedom high schools in Bethlehem at this time. The NAACP was in on the meeting, too, and they were asking, 'Does it work?' When I heard this, I was eager to share how I had seen the practices working outside the classroom.
Winston Alozie, program director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bethlehem"We have a large gymnasium where I see 80 to 100 kids a day, mostly high school students. They love to play basketball. One afternoon I walked into the gym and the kids were on the verge of a fight. Boys were pushing and yelling — taking sides and gathering around two boys in the center. Some of these kids have gang affiliations, so I was afraid this could be bad. But what could have turned into a big brouhaha did not because the kids used restorative practices.
"One boy was offended by what another boy had said to him. They were yelling back and forth, when one boy suddenly said, 'Look, I don’t want to fight. I don’t like what you said; you hurt my feelings.' Then the other boy said, 'You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Let’s not do this.'
"I was so proud of these kids: that high school students could behave that way. One kid was able to say how the other kid had affected him, and the other kid was able to take responsibility and apologize. They weren’t afraid of being seen as a wimp or less of a man. And there was nobody standing over them and telling them to do this; it was their own idea.
Getting along in basketball
"It was clear to me they had learned how to do this from the restorative practices and circles they had learned at Liberty. These kids are learning how to be compassionate and empathetic, how to be in touch with their feelings and the feelings of others. I had never seen anything like this in nine years working at the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs.
"I have my bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology. When I first heard about restorative practices I thought, OK, but how’s it going to work with regular kids? When I saw what those boys did it really touched me. If you can express yourself effectively with words, it’s a beautiful thing. I hope we can incorporate these practices into the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs. I think it would help us with our mission to help our kids reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens."
Restorative justice has been receiving a lot of attention lately, due to Paul Tullis’s January 4 New York Times Magazine article, “Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?”
This story about a restorative justice conference following the murder of a young woman by her boyfriend was also covered on the January 5 episode of the Today show, “Parents who forgave their daughter's killer: It 'frees us'.”
Both the Times and the Today stories do their audience a disservice by dwelling on forgiveness as the apparent reason for restorative justice. Forgiveness is neither an expectation nor a goal of restorative justice. Forgiveness may be a by-product, but the notion that a crime victim should forgive an offender imposes unrealistic and potentially hurtful demands on a crime victim.
Last Thursday EdWeek's Bridging Differences blog by Deborah Meier posted the first of what it says will be a month of guest blogging by Alfie Kohn. Wikipedia describes Kohn as an "author and lecturer who has explored a number of topics in education, parenting, and human behavior. ... [H]e calls into questions [such practices] as the use of competition, incentive programs, conventional discipline, standardized testing, grades, homework, and traditional schooling." In this first post at EdWeek, Kohn writes a critique of punishment:
Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice at Eastern Mennonite University, sent a note of response to some of the negative responses by restorative justice advocates to the NYTimes Magazine article that appeared a few weeks ago. He writes:
The responses by restorative justice advocates to the NYT article on justice and forgiveness are partly a result of some errors in the story and to things that were left out. Readers may be interested in this interview about the case with Sujatha Baliga who facilitated the case. And if it's helpful to know, I was the one that connected Sujatha to the families and advised behind the scenes along the way. There are of course many skilled facilitators for serious violence dialogues. What this case required at the pre-plea stage was an experienced attorney rooted in restorative justice. Sujatha ended up also being the facilitator because the families insisted on it.
Here's a redux of IIRP UK & Ireland's 2012 one-day conference in Swansea, Wales, in November.
Find out about IIRP UK & Ireland's Summer 2013 conference here.
Experience three days immersed in a restorative environment.
April 3-5 (Wed.-Fri.) | Bethlehem, PA
544 Main St., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018 USA
Cost: $425 per person (includes lunch)
Space is limited, so register early.
Marilyn Armour and Stephanie Frogge, restorative justice practitioners, respond the the New York Times Magazine's story a few weeks ago that told the story of a restorative conference for the families of both victim and offender after a young man murdered his fiance. They write:
As restorative justice practitioners, our initial reaction to the article was one of jubilation. “A piece about restorative justice in a major newspaper … they like it, they really like it!” But our excitement quickly dimmed.
In this piece, a mother discusses how she talked to her kids about Lance Armstrong and his admission that he used drugs to enhance his cycling performance to repeatedly win the Tour de France. Knowing that restorative practices are used in her children's schools in San Francisco, Amy Graff floated the idea of using restorative practices with Lance and her kids took the bait. She writes:
At the dinner table the other night, I posed this question to my family.
My husband, a cycling enthusiast who’s passionate about the sport, shared, “I’m never forgiving him. The guy ruined the sport.”
“I forgive him, Mommy,” my son said with a smile.
“No way!” was my daughter’s gut reaction.
“But at school you’re taught to forgive your schoolmates,” I pointed out to my daughter. “How would you be asked to approach this situation at school? Would you forgive him on the school playground?”
In anticipation of the February 2013 issue of The Prevention Researcher on restorative justice, which is sponsored by the International Institute for Restorative Practices, the magazine has just released an audio podcast interview about school implementation of restorative practices. Dr. Christopher Plum is Interim Superintendent at the Plymouth Educational Center, a K-12 charter District in the heart of Detroit, Michigan.
A few years ago, the Plymouth Educational Center began using mandatory, district-wide, restorative practices. Since then, district administrators and faculty have witnessed a "magical" transformation of their school culture. Dr. Plum talks about the restorative practices which have been implemented, the challenges in doing so, and what changes he has noticed in the schools.
Along the lines of the previous post, I would also add this statement from the Dignity in Schools Campaign:
In the weeks following the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut, a number of advocates, including members of Congress and the National Rifle Association, have called for armed guards and/or police officers in public schools. As Vice President Joe Biden’s task force on gun violence develops policy recommendations in response to the attack and gun violence more generally, a coalition of youth, parents, education advocates, civil rights organizations, and law enforcement are cautioning the White House against embracing proposals to put armed guards and police in schools.
“A police presence makes us feel unsafe and unwelcome in our own schools,” said Tanisha Denard, a youth organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition, a member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign. “Police are trained to stop and prevent crime on the streets, not to mediate problems that may come up between young people in a school. When we go to school, we go there to learn, to be students, not to be treated like criminals.”
The rest of the statement can be found here.
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