It is all grey
When it comes to school discipline, very little is black and white. Grey pervades like clouds in a November sky. The sneaky trick of punitive school discipline policies is that they make us believe that discipline can be black and white. They provide responses to student behavior that are simplistic and rigid. Consequently, they can be implemented with a consistency that makes them feel effective – or at least like there is “something being done” when a student’s actions transgress school or classroom expectations.
*This black and white thinking is connected to the “either/or thinking” and “only one right way” approach of white supremacy culture outlined by Tema Okun, a culture that, because we are operating in the belly of the beast, coaxes us into a blind implementation of oppressive policies producing racist and oppressive results.
The consistency of punitive practices, though it yields harmful and racist outcomes and rarely ever genuinely transforms student behavior, feels appropriate to many teachers and school staff who, understandably, want students to be held accountable for behaviors that are harmful or go against classroom or school expectations.
I get it. Work in schools, especially classroom teaching, is challenging. Really challenging. We ask students to do the impossible: sit in a desk in a classroom (or six to eight different classrooms if they are in high school) for six to seven hours straight, stay focused the entire time, don’t talk unless they are supposed to, and learn everything we throw at them.
Then we ask teachers to make the impossible possible by planning rigorous, culturally relevant, engaging lessons that differentiate for every student, integrate literacy throughout the curriculum, center student voice, and use data to guide instruction.
Myriad reasons, both inside and outside of school – and often beyond our control (and definitely beyond their control) – contribute to students frequently being unable to meet this challenge. And when the challenge is too much, it can get ugly. This might be a battle over putting away the cell phone, a disrespectful comment in class, graffiti in the bathroom, or even a fight after school.
These daily transgressions force a school to show what it truly stands for – and what beliefs it truly holds about student discipline.
Consistent but not rigid
In form and function, restorative justice is different – it is humanizing, antiracist, and anti-oppressive. As opposed to punitive discipline, it is much more involved, nuanced, and complex. This can make it, as a policy and system, more difficult to communicate to those not involved in a given situation. This can also lead to the perception that it is not consistent and clear – like “nothing is being done” or students are “getting away” with problematic behaviors. However, when implemented appropriately, restorative discipline is consistent and clear in the following ways:
- It stays focused on the root causes of the behaviors,
- ensures consequences match the actions that brought about the need for a restorative process,
- attempts to maintain the dignity of students and staff,
- and remains committed to the well-being of everyone involved and the good of the community as a whole.
Everyone, staff, teachers, and students alike, wants consistency and clarity when it comes to our discipline policies. The discipline flow chart is the loudest manifestation of this desire to carve the complexity of student (mis)behavior into something we can put in a box and, therefore, control.
I have participated in the making, revising, shaping, dismantling, and remaking of dozens of discipline flow charts in my time in schools – and I have not found a single one to be successful as the primary tool for transforming student behavior and shaping positive school culture. They are blunt tools and the challenges of student behavior we are attempting to address are as deep, complex, and delicate as the eyes of our students staring up at us from their desks.
Rooted in justice
My school was created as a community-based institution fighting for justice and equity in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Our Vision is to: nurture, train, and discipline our school community to engage in a continuous practice of developing mind, heart, and body towards a VISION where we actively rise up. Agency and self-determination drive our struggle to improve our own material and social conditions towards a more healthy, equitable, and just society.
Our Mission and Vision – and the experiences of our students and families, who struggle daily with the realities of structural oppression and racism – demand that we root our policies and practices in restorative justice. The school-to-prison pipeline flows openly through communities like the Fruitvale and, as a school, if we are not acting boldly to shut it down, then we are perpetuating the problem.
We are rooted in the principles of restorative justice, not in a superficial or tangential way where we hold a few circles or hire a restorative justice coordinator who “does” RJ – then claim to be a restorative justice school, but in a way that attempts to make restorative justice fundamentally who we are and what we do.
Here are a few of the concrete ways we are putting RJ at the forefront of our work and our school community:
- We have established RJ is one of the six elements of our “Instructional Core,” which we use to guide professional develop and define excellent teaching.
- We have dedicated more time in professional development to RJ than any other element of the Instructional Core.
- We have created a “break space” in every classroom so students have a place within the classroom where they can go when they just need a minute to check out, relax, or reset.
- We have eliminated suspensions as a consequence except in the most extreme cases.
- We have written community building circles into our advisory curriculum once per week in every classroom.
- We have held dozens of circles to resolve conflict, address harm, and build relationships.
I have taught and led at five different high schools, large and small, district and charter over the past twenty years and my current school has, by far, the deepest commitment to restorative justice of any school community I have been a part of. The staff believes in the goodness and aspirational potential of our students; our leadership team is steeped in RJ experience and expertise; we have largely eliminated punitive structures and policies; and most teachers are genuinely bought into the philosophy and practices of restorative justice.
Leadership when the rubber meets the road
Yet, still, when the challenging behaviors mount, as they always do this time of year – more students resisting the cell phone policy, more talking back in the classroom, an uptick in student conflicts, or an increase in students wandering the hallway – the energy rapidly slips towards a desire for black and white, for more concrete (read punitive) responses to student behavior.
As a school leader who spent over 15 years in the classroom and who experienced my share of struggles with classroom engagement and moments I wanted to run away and hide under my desk, I hold enormous compassion and empathy for the challenges that provoke a desire (and, at times, a demand) for punitive consequences. I care deeply about my staff and teachers. I want to have their backs no matter what.
But, even more importantly, I am committed to doing what I believe is right for my students and my school community – and to ensuring that the intentions of our work with students is consistent with our impact. When it comes to discipline, this sometimes means holding the line with restorative justice and asking them to push beyond their comfort zones because it is what’s best for our youngStars (even when they are not acting like the brilliant stars they can be).
My friend, colleague, transformational principal (and author of the blog ‘Culturally Relevant Leadership’). Joe Truss, captures the dilemma well, “It’s hard to change behavior, of the students, of the adults, and of the system. But I do know this. If we create the conditions where we HAVE to find alternatives, we WILL. This requires innovation, and if we can be innovative with our teaching practices and flexible seating, then goddamn it, we should be innovative we our response student behavior.”
Our obligation as leaders is to build and maintain our vision for the liberatory education we know to be possible, to do our best to implement the policies and practices that make this vision possible, and to build the trust and belief in this vision alongside our staff, teachers, and community.
There are no silver bullets. It is never black and white. The path laid by restorative justice will be rocky, precarious, and uncertain at times. But we know where the punitive path leads for too many of our students – and we must take a stand that this is unacceptable in our schools. We must demand better.