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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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.

[/quote]

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