Restoring Classroom Justice -- In These Times

News > September 4, 2007Restoring Classroom JusticeBy LEWIS WALLACE (/about/author/5167)When the Chicago School Board passed a Student Codeof Conduct on June 27 that made “restorative justice” acentral approach to school discipline, a coalition ofChicago students, parents and educators celebrated astep forward in a four-year-long organizing campaign.“Young people were being expelled and arrested foreverything from throwing a pencil in class to pushing ateacher,” says Yusufu Mosley, an organizer for theprison-abolition group Critical Resistance. Restorativejustice programs focus on using community networksand dialogue to reconcile the offender to thecommunity. “It’s about trying to find resolution ratherthan being punitive,” says Mosley.The growing movement for restorative justice inschools is partially a response to “zero tolerance” policies that require students to be suspended or expelledfor certain violations. Such policies grew popular after the 1999 Columbine massacre, despite multiplestudies that show violence in schools decreased between 1992 and 2004. Zero tolerance, say critics, comesdown hardest on black and Latino youth.“Students in some schools complain that if there’s a fight, the first thing teachers do is call the police,” saysMartine Caverl, an organizer at Blocks Together, a Chicago community organization that worked on thecampaign. Caverl says it is important to find conflict resolution options that circumvent the criminaljustice ...