Get ready for even less detentons/suspensions and more restorative justice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really like the idea of forcing parents to attend school with their unruly children. It does need to be applied equally to those kids who kick teachers and those with ADHD and who cause multiple disruptions in the classroom.

Or even better set up stocks in the town square where they can be pelted with rotten produce like the good old days!

What do you suggest? I guess you like circle talks. After a girl is sexually assaulted they all talk about it, right? That is basically pelting the victim over and over again, no?

So sick of the teachers and victims always being accountable, but the parents and students accused never are.

Enough

Actually, I believe that's a matter for the police. The school system has no business in law enforcement.

And what exactly do you want police to do? Do you want to see more of these headlines? https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/us/body-camera-video-6-year-old-arrested/index.html

Everyone is talking about the worst cases in these threads. Let's not forget there are plenty of white kids who are out of control in the classroom. They may not hit teachers and take it to that extreme but they do disrupt it for everyone else. Sometimes their parents are in denial about the issues their kids have. Those parents also need to be held accountable.

[Anonymous]

This will get lost in the crazies on this thread but I do not understand why the BOE just doesn't set clear guidelines for what constitutes a suspension and set up a review panel for suspensions.

If there are situations where black and hispanics students are suspended for trivial things or things that a white kid would not be suspended for doing then an independent review panel should be able to easily spot this.

If black and hispanic students are committing suspension worthing violations with higher frequency than whites then they should end suspended more. The only way to safely reduce those numbers is to reduce the opportunity these students have in committing these crimes. This would mean more school security staff in high risk schools, more structured, less free time and reducing the crowding situations.

Psychologists have found that almost all crime is most influenced by opportunity. You can be motivated to commit a crime (or not motivated to avoid committing crimes) but if you have less opportunity you will be less likely to go to the effort to seek it out.

[Anonymous]

Clicked send too quickly.

I think the BOE is insane with its restorative justice plan because it is being so poorly implemented within MCPS. It is creating MORE opportunity for students to commit violations. Its sending kids who otherwise might follow the rules and stay out of trouble down the path of trouble to fit in because now everyone can get away with anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will get lost in the crazies on this thread but I do not understand why the BOE just doesn't set clear guidelines for what constitutes a suspension and set up a review panel for suspensions.

If there are situations where black and hispanics students are suspended for trivial things or things that a white kid would not be suspended for doing then an independent review panel should be able to easily spot this.

If black and hispanic students are committing suspension worthing violations with higher frequency than whites then they should end suspended more. The only way to safely reduce those numbers is to reduce the opportunity these students have in committing these crimes. This would mean more school security staff in high risk schools, more structured, less free time and reducing the crowding situations.

Psychologists have found that almost all crime is most influenced by opportunity. You can be motivated to commit a crime (or not motivated to avoid committing crimes) but if you have less opportunity you will be less likely to go to the effort to seek it out.

1. A review board will not be able to identify when a teacher does not discipline a child because she is biased.
2. Nobody is talking about committing crimes.

[Anonymous]

I'm all for consequences, but I think the problem isn't restorative justice per se, but restorative justice done wrong. They rolled out restorative justice but apparently not with fidelity or proper training. I'm in another district but restorative justice done WELL does include prioritizing safety and giving penalties for poor behavior. When done well, it lowers the risk that the child will make the same harmful choices repeatedly. I just want to put that out there....I don't, however, know how MCPS staff were trained and how watered down it got between the admin and faculty level. If all it involves is circling up and saying sorry, then that's not restorative justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm all for consequences, but I think the problem isn't restorative justice per se, but restorative justice done wrong. They rolled out restorative justice but apparently not with fidelity or proper training. I'm in another district but restorative justice done WELL does include prioritizing safety and giving penalties for poor behavior. When done well, it lowers the risk that the child will make the same harmful choices repeatedly. I just want to put that out there....I don't, however, know how MCPS staff were trained and how watered down it got between the admin and faculty level. If all it involves is circling up and saying sorry, then that's not restorative justice.

Agree, restorative justice done correctly is more effective than the methods used in the olden days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm all for consequences, but I think the problem isn't restorative justice per se, but restorative justice done wrong. They rolled out restorative justice but apparently not with fidelity or proper training. I'm in another district but restorative justice done WELL does include prioritizing safety and giving penalties for poor behavior. When done well, it lowers the risk that the child will make the same harmful choices repeatedly. I just want to put that out there....I don't, however, know how MCPS staff were trained and how watered down it got between the admin and faculty level. If all it involves is circling up and saying sorry, then that's not restorative justice.

Circles place the perps, the victims, and their families in the same room - in a circle, looking at each other. It's a Native American practice.

thing is -
- We don't share the same norms and values. problem #1
- Try to logistically get all people in the room at the same time. Lots of parents don't give a rat's a**. problem #2
- Crimes that are gang-related extend way beyond the school community, as a network can form to connect Silver Spring to Gaithersburg. problem #3
- Training is a joke. I was trained through tier 2. My colleagues on the MHT were trained through tier three b/c they had the ability to restrain kids. (a hierarchy of skills, I suppose) I was never called into a circle after training. So it was a waste of time. problem #3
- Language barriers can be issues. Communicating the same message (dealing with nuances of another language) can be difficult. problem #4

Finally, I'm not sure how any of this is tracked. If you go through the trouble of using circles, what are the long-lasting effects? Who's tracking data at the school and system level? I never saw anything - and MCPS is big on data. problem #5

It's a joke.