Introducing Restorative Justice in Schools

By Amy L. Huang, MSW

During the school year, one student from the Long Beach Unified Student District (LBUSD) is suspended every 15 minutes. In LBUSD, 42 percent of suspensions are for the minor offense of “willful defiance” which can include talking back to the teacher or walking out of class without permission (LBUSD, 2013).

Recent research by Balfanz, Byrnes and Fox (2013), which tracked all ninth grade students in Florida for more than six years, indicates that being suspended just once in ninth grade was associated with a twofold increase in the likelihood of dropping out than for students who were not suspended.

According to LBUSD (2013), a disproportionate number of African Americans and Latinos are expelled or suspended from school compared to Caucasian students. This leads to long-term consequences, as African American and Latino students are less likely to graduate from high school than Caucasian students in LBUSD. In 2007, almost one in ten Latino and one in six African American males between 16 and 25 years of age were disconnected, incarcerated, out of work or out of school (Luo, 2009). Latinos are two times more likely to be out of school, out of the labor force or incarcerated than non-Hispanic whites, and African Americans are three times more likely than whites to be out of the labor force or incarcerated (Luo, 2009).

Therefore, our program goal was to promote school engagement of all Long Beach youth. That is where restorative justice comes in by creating systems of support that lead to improved behavior and academic achievement. Restorative justice fosters positive relationships between students, teachers and administrators leading to overall safer learning environments. A long-term objective is to decrease the rate of suspensions of students in Long Beach by 30 percent by the year 2015.

Recommendations
Based on the research, assembly meeting and other relevant information, the following recommendations are proposed to encourage restorative justice, a uniform discipline policy and alternative forms of discipline in LBUSD to keep students in school.

1. Emphasize that schools need to be the center of treatment because it’s where young people spend most of their time, and by nurturing a young person’s development we can only begin to unlock their full potential. We must recognize that investing in resources and support such as academic coaching and workforce development for young males of color is an investment toward the entire community.
2. Emphasize that schools should meaningfully engage with parents and students to develop fair discipline policies that are fair across schools and alternative discipline policies such as restorative justice as they are proven to increase academic achievement and create a healthy, safe school environment
3. Continue to keep track of progress for Blacks, Latinos, Southeast Asians and other young men of color. Measure it and inform the community of progress such as graduation, drop-out rates, career, and college readiness rates.
4. Find sources of funding to continue to develop pamphlets/booklets informing the community about restorative justice practices, willful defiance and uniform school policies.

Amy L. Huang is a practicing MSW from California State University Long Beach who works as a social skills coordinator CIP Long Beach. She could be reached at ahuang12@hotmail.com.

References
Balfanz, R., Byrnes, V., & Fox, J. (2013). Sent Home and Put Off-Track: The Antecedents, Disproportionalities, and Consequences of Being Suspended in the Ninth Grade. Paper presented at the Closing the School Discipline Gap: Research to Practice Conference, Washington, D.C.

LBUSD (2013). Statistics. Retrieved November 26, 2013 from http://www.lbusd.k12.ca.us/.

Luo, Michael (2009). In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap. New York Times, Retrieved November 26, 2013 from www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?_r=1&ref=us.