teacher), (b) acknowledge emotional impact of actions on all in attendance for the meeting, (c) jointly determine solutions for moving forward to repair the
relationship and prevent further incidents like what had occurred, (d) set timeline to revisit plan set during the meeting.
In order to support this process amongst the school officials who had not received any formal training13 into the theory and methods of restorative justice, Mr. Ferguson created a RC folder with varied resources explaining what restorative practices were and an RC referral form that could help them to quickly identify how to engage in restorative practices within their
classrooms, where the RC fit within that process. These can be reviewed in Appendix D.
If implemented correctly, Mr. Ferguson hoped that the restorative process would help the students by “bring[ing] them back into the educational process”, which meant grow their
engagement with school, increased focus on their academic work, and higher academic
performance. Below, I share a portion of a restorative meeting that had reached step five of the restorative process. The participants were two teachers, Mr. Clark (math) and Mrs. Fitzgerald (art), Dior (a 9th grade, lower performing, Black female student), me, and Mr. Ferguson. The meeting was initiated because Mrs. Fitzgerald had called Dior’s Dad on the phone the previous day and told him that she often seemed to be disengaged and off task during class. When Dior went home that night, she was told that she needed to “fix the problems” she had at school14. When she expressed this to Mr. Ferguson, he suggested that she meet with the teachers whose classes she had the most difficulty concentrating in as a start. She agreed to have the meeting. Mr. Ferguson opened the meeting with a brief explanation about the discussion structure, which was that Dior would speak first while the teachers listened, and then the teachers would speak while Dior listened. After both parties had made their comments, Mr. Ferguson would step in and help the group to create a plan for moving forward. When Dior got the chance to speak, she 13 The teachers had undergone a two-week long cultural training the year prior to my involvement at the JHS. Mr. Ferguson suggested that it could have set the foundation for some of the assumptions necessary for restorative work but it “fell flat” because both the students and the teachers felt it was “basic” and a “waste of time”. During my interviews with the school officials, many commented on the fact that it felt like an inauthentic way to connect with students because it was short in time and detached from the everyday happenings within their classrooms.
explained that she just wanted to know what they thought she needed to do to “fix things”. The meeting then went as follows:
Clark: We are on your side…you just have to work with us
Fitzgerald: What can I do to help you work on a particular thing in my class?
Dior: Well I need to work on focus, working with others, not being on YouTube, anger
management and catching up on my work after my computer get fixed. I led a group in my connections class with Mrs. Simpson. That was cool. I like leading the group. I was good at it.
Fitzgerald: (referring to the statement about leading group) Why don’t I see any of these
qualities in my class?
Dior: (shrugged shoulders and looked away) Well, I know my grades aren’t perfect; in
fact they aren’t perfect at all. But my dad said I could do better and I know I can.
Fitzgerald: The goal shouldn’t be perfection because that does not exist for humans, but
it should be on improvement.
Clark: Let’s set a grade goal to make it more concrete.
Dior: (paused and thought for a second) Hmm, I want to get at least a B in all my
classes.
Clark: Do you think you did “B” level work in class today?
Dior: (with a slight smile) I was until those kids who were joking too much distracted me.
I need to work on being able to block them out. See, before I would be doing what they were doing and get kicked out of school because I be bored.
Clark: Sometimes I get bored with it too. But you know, there are just going to be days
Following these comments, Mr. Ferguson closed the meeting with asking how the RC could be a support to her and finalized a plan to keep her focused and engaged in class. As this interaction demonstrated, the restorative meetings were intended to be spaces where both teachers and students could share with one another in non-confrontational manner. None of them were perfect, but some certainly better than others. In this meeting, Dior was able to express the concerns she had about her in class engagement—ones that were likely shared with her teachers—and her teachers were able to express their support in helping her to address the concerns. Importantly, both Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mr. Clark were able to have positive moments during the meeting where they shared words of wisdom and encouragement with Dior. They had the opportunity to verbally express their desire to work collaboratively to help her be more successful and engaged in school. Together with Dior, they were able to set a goal that would enable her to experience greater academic success. Dior walked away from that meeting smiling, in good spirits, and with a positive outlook for what the next class meetings would bring.
To further illustrate the productive possibilities of restorative meetings, I share another example of an interaction that occurred between Mr. Pickett (science teacher) and Demetria (10th grade, Black girl) whom we met before during the discussion of JHS’s struggles with creating a technologically rich environment. Demetria arrived at the RC with a referral for disrespect and lack of engagement with the classroom activities. Once she got settled, Mr. Ferguson and I jointly went through the first four steps of the restorative process. The excerpt I share now is from the last step where the student and teacher engage in a meeting in an attempt to resolve the problem in a mutually beneficial way. At this point, Mr. Ferguson facilitated the meeting while I observed. The meeting went as follows:
Picket: Demetria here, uh she thinks this is hilarious and which is also super
disrespectful just so you know. So she continued to put her head down (he was reading the referral sheet that he had written but also making additional comments), be difficult, and just kind of walked out to come here, but I was about to send her somewhere
anyways. So I redirected her and reminded her that the expectation is that we don’t have our heads down in class especially when we are actually not all caught up on the
classwork that we are doing. So there were multiple times today where you (now he spoke directly to Demetria) were behind on what we were doing, seeming like you understood it but still making mistakes and that’s because you were not staying with us. I don’t know if it's because you think you understood it or what, but it’s important to stay with us, okay? (Back to speaking to Mr. Ferguson) And then when I reminded her she told me how much she hates the class and I said that’s okay I hate that you aren’t doing what you were supposed to be doing, and that it’s my job as a teacher to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. At that point I asked her to step out into the hallway and a couple things were said and just a lot disrespect is happening. So that’s pretty much what happened.
Mr. Ferguson: (to Demetria) What’s your side of the story?
Demetria: So I was doing my work and I did not write down the numbers on the side of
the graph because I felt like it was going to throw me off. If I have too many numbers in one area, I’m not going to understand it and it’s all going to be confusing. So I put my head down and Mr. Pickett came over and asked me to put my head up, and I was like I hate this class and he was like I hate that you aren’t doing your work. But before that, he told me to write my numbers on the side of the graph and I said no, it’s confusing and it’s
going to keep throwing me off. Then he said okay so then you are going to keep getting the wrong answer. And then that’s when I put my head down and he told me to pick my head up
Mr. Ferguson: Why did you put your head down then?
Demetria: Because I was irritated. And when he asked me to put my head up, I did tell
him that I hate this class and he said he hates that I’m not doing the work. But then I told him that’s a personal problem and maybe he should just leave me alone. And then he was like go stand in the hallway. I told him that when he went out, I was not going to be out there because I was going to the RC. And he said that’s fine.
Pickett: And so I felt very disrespected by the “it’s a personal problem go fix it”. That’s
very unacceptable to say to anyone let alone a teacher
Demetria: Okay and I feel like you're not motivating me as a teacher to tell me to write
down the numbers and then say “oh if maybe if wrote down the numbers you would not get the answers wrong”(said in sarcastic mocking tone).
Ferguson: (to Demetria) Let me ask you a question, if you perceived that Mr. Pickett was
doing something that was not cool, was your comment going to address that? Or just indicate that you were frustrated? (Silence from Demetria) C’mon now...
Demetria: Indicate that I was frustrated.
Ferguson: Its times when I get frustrated and the first thing that comes out of my mouth
makes the situation worse and not better. And I don’t believe you wanted to make the situation worse (more silence from Demetria).
Pickett: Can I explain to you why I said what I said? (Demetria: mmhmm) I promise if I tell you do something it’s super important and here’s why (pulls out sheet of graphing
paper). Here we are on the X-axis and we are going by 1’s. On the Y-axis we are going by—
Demetria: Two’s.
Pickett: If you don’t write that down you make the error and this is why you said the
slope was 3/2, because you did not have the numbers there and you counted 1, 2, and 3, instead of 2,4,6. It would have been 6/2, which is a slope of 3. And that’s why I said if you continue not following those directions, you are going to continue to get the wrong answer. Because these are important things to have. Now if you think this looks ugly or its too much information, unfortunately that is a problem we are just going to have to move past because this is most appropriate way to create the graph. Without it, you will continue to get the answer wrong and Mr. Longhurst will probably mark you down because you can’t show him that you understand the scale. And that’s why I said if you continue to do it that way, you would continue to get it wrong. There was no disrespect intended, I was just telling you the truth and this is why this is important.
Ferguson: So that was going to help her be more successful?
Pickett: Very much so. Because she is obviously a very intelligent young women and if
she wrote down the things we asked her to, she will get the right answer because she did, but just with the wrong scale. (To Demetria) You counted it right, but you had the wrong scale because you did not write it down and when you get one thing wrong it throws off the rest of the problem. Does that make sense? (Demetria: Mmmhmm) and that’s what frustrates me; I know your potential because I’ve worked with you for almost a year and a half now. When you chose to do the right things the sky is the limit and I really take that as a personal problem. If you tell me that I’m not motivating you, that’s really important
information for me and now I need to know what I can better to do to motivate you. Does that make sense (Demetria: yea)? If you feel like, hey this isn’t working for me... (Left unfinished, but insinuating they can talk about it)...but one thing I need you to do is follow the directions I give you because that is the only way that we can find common ground to then figure out what else will motivate you. Does that make sense? (Demetria: Yea). I was you in high school to a certain degree. I thought I could just do anything and sometimes it works, but a lot of times it does not. So I understand the frustration. But I need some commitment from you that you will just trust that when we tell you to do something we are doing it for a reason. Is that fair?
Demetria: Yea Pickett: Okay
Ferguson: Thank you
During this meeting Demetria and Mr. Pickett had the chance to explain to one another exactly how they interpreted the incident—which we learned was quite different. While Mr. Pickett perceived Demetria to be disrespectful towards him because she continued to put her head down and stated that she hated his class, Demetria felt like she was being disrespected when she was told that she would get her answers wrong if she continued to construct her graph in the way she felt would help her to get the right answer. The meeting provided the opportunity for Mr. Pickett to explain the rationale that undergirded the directions he gave and demonstrate how, if followed, they would help her to be more successful in his class. In this meeting he was able to affirm her intelligence and capacity to do the work, as well as express his desire to make sure she felt motivated to do so. In the end, although Demetria would have to do exactly what she had not wanted to do in the first place, she came to a point where she could understand why it was the
necessary way to do things in Mr. Pickett’s mind and why it was not needlessly being enforced15. Though the meeting started out with tension and frustration between the two, it ended with a common understanding of one another’s perspective and a commitment from Mr. Pickett to continue to work in Demetria’s best interest, and a commitment from Demetria to trust that he was doing so.
Despite the potential of meetings like these to address concerns with students by establishing relationships and increasing constructive communication between teachers and students, overall, as will be discussed next, they were rare occurrences because the restorative model was not implemented with fidelity.
The Teachers’ Misuse of the RC
When the 2015-2016 school year began, Mr. Ferguson and I hit the ground running with excitement for the promise of what the restorative practices would offer to the school community at JHS. During one of the first staff meetings, Mr. Ferguson talked with the teachers and staff members about what restorative practices were and how he imagined it would be implemented within the school. He provided everyone with the folder of resources and explained how each of the items was meant to support their implementation of restorative practices. He presented them with an open door policy where they could come to either of us with questions or concerns about the center or individual students. Additionally, he invited them to bring their entire classes to the RC so that as a collective group, the students could learn more about us and create a common understanding about what restorative justice would be in the context of JHS.
15 Given the power structure in schools that places teachers in complete control and students as relatively powerless (Friere, 1968), Demetria’s acceptance of Mr. Pickett’s learning tool (i.e. numbering the axis) was the best way to keep out of trouble and position herself to have positive interactions with him in the future. However, good teaching practice would have been for Mr. Pickett to figure out a better tool for her to use altogether (Ladson-Billings, 1997). It was clear that the math “rules” that he wanted everyone in the class to use were not working for Demetria, yet he
Despite sharing a clearly defined vision for the RC, and distributing tools to support the implementation of that vision, Mr. Ferguson and I encountered challenges from the very beginning moments of the RC’s operation. Over time, there were several indicators that the RC was not being implemented with fidelity. The first happening that alerted us to the misuse of the center was that despite the availability of the RC for every student in the school, nearly, 95% of all of the referrals to the space were for Black students, with nearly 80% being Black girls. When I asked Mr. Ferguson why he thought this was the case, he felt it boiled down to a matter of race. He stated that the “main issue” was that “the entire teaching staff [is] White and the support staff [is] Black”. He conveyed his feelings that the teachers did not have the “cultural proficiency” to work with Black students. He stated that in the absence of trying to figure out a way to work with the Black children, the teachers and support staff focused on the White students. He stated that “no matter how differently the White kids present[ed] themselves” (from the normative idealized version of Whiteness), they were “treated better” and given more “positive attention” than the Black students, which was obvious in the ways that we saw so few White students in the RC on a daily basis.
The second happening that indicated a misuse of the space, was the continued use of discipline referral forms when sending the students to the RC, rather than the specific RC forms Mr. Ferguson had created to assist teachers in their use of classroom based restorative practices. As mentioned earlier, the official protocol in referring a student to the RC was that they would be sent over with the RC pass. The use of this particular pass was critical because it could empower the teachers to enact restorative strategies within the classroom if they found themselves at a loss for what to do in the moment, prior to removing the student from the class. Moreover, it provided information about the students and class they were in, the incident that had occurred that led the
their dismissal from the classroom, the particular strategies the teacher had employed before