Educators in Bentonville explore discipline model

Restorative justice aims to get pupils back to class

Sunday, November 25, 2012

When teenagers make bad choices, such as taking illegal or contraband drugs to school, they face lengthy suspensions or expulsions that can set them back academically and increase their chances of dropping out of school.

To combat this, the principals at Bentonville High School and Washington and Lincoln junior high schools are experimenting with “restorative justice,” offering shorter suspensions or expulsions when students agree to fulfill contracts designed to return them to their home campuses.

“I don’t think there are bad kids. I think there are kids that make bad choices,” said Jack Loyd, ninth-gradeassistant principal at Bentonville High School. “Every kid needs that break.”

Zero-tolerance policies emerged in school districts after the passage of the Federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, which required school districts to expel any student found with a firearm at school, according to information compiled by the California Department of Education. The policies were intended as a tough response to violent behavior.

In the mid-1990s, most school districts required suspension or expulsion as a consequence for drugs, weapons and violence, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Restorative justice offers more leniency and opportunities, said Brad Reed,student services director for the Bentonville Public School District, which has 14,880 students.

“We’re trying to reduce loss of school, loss of instructional time and increase academic support for kids while at the same time not wanting it watered down so much that there’s no consequences,” Reed said. “There are going to be consequences. We also want to have that mercy in our pockets.”

Restorative justice emerged in the criminal-justice system and emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior, according to Prison Fellowship International, which operates the website restorativejustice. org. Prison Fellowship International is an internationalChristian ministry association with offices in Washington, D.C., and Singapore.

Through restorative-justice programs, offenders and victims sometimes will meet in person, according to the association. An offender will take steps to repair the harm done, such as making an apology, compensating for financial losses, changing behavior and performing community service.

Dee Ann Newell, executive director of the nonprofit organization Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind, is the sponsor of the Arkansas Restorative Justice Coalition. Through the 3-year-old coalition, Newell is working to establish an experimental restorative justice program for Little Rock high schools.

The coalition involves representatives from state agencies, churches and interested community members, Newell said.

Newell said she is not aware of any school-based restorative justice programs in Arkansas, but said they exist in some schools in northern California.

“The whole point is to get into their heads enough that they really feel the harm that they’ve done,” she said.

Restorative justice has been adapted for schools within the past 10 years, Reed said. Superintendent Mike Poore introduced the idea to Reed and asked him to assemble a team that included representatives from kindergarten through 12th grade. The team decided the concept fit best for grades seven through 12, he said.

Team members went to Colorado in March to observe and receive training on restorative-justice practices that are used in school districts in Denver and Colorado Springs. Poore was a deputy superintendent in Colorado Springs before he was hired by the Bentonville Public School District.

“There’s discipline involved and accountability,” Reed said. “We’re trying to come up with a way where out-of-school time is reduced, the loss of instruction is reduced.”

Student handbooks in Bentonville require penalties that range from 10-day suspensions to a one-year expulsion for offenses that include threatening to assault students or staff, smoking, inhaling aerosols, distributing prescription drugs to other students or being under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.

While Bentonville is not able to devote the staff and additional time necessary to arrange meetings between student offenders and their victims, Bentonville High School, Lincoln Junior High School and Washington Junior High School are experimenting with different approaches to discipline, Reed said.

For Bentonville, the concept links the punishment side of a consequence with education, said Loyd.

“If we can reduce their time outside of Bentonville High School, we have a much greater chance of getting that student to graduate,” he said.

At Bentonville High School, Loyd has two students participating in restorative justice. Instead of spending an entire semester in an alternative school, the student is expelled for several weeks and allowed to return to campus under an agreement that requires community service and a formal presentation of research related to his offenses.

Bentonville High Schoolstudents most often go to REAP (Regional Educational Alternative Program) Academy in Rogers after a serious violation of school policies, Loyd said.

The high school has a few expulsions each year, mostly related to drugs, Loyd said. Students typically don’t think they will get caught, and they often don’t realize the harm of marijuana use or the use of a prescription drug not prescribed to them, he said.

“When we use it, we can go in and adjust that discipline plan to that student, make it unique and applicable to that student and that student’s home life,” Loyd said. “Being able to set back and make those adjustments, that’s the beauty.”

The extra steps required to reduce a punishment by several weeks forces a student to think about the offense, Loyd said.

“They’re going out and doing a whole lot more work than just going to an alternative classroom,” Loyd said.

Stephanie Lane, assistant principal at Washington Junior High School, said she likes the option of providing some grace to students who are facing a suspension or expulsion for the first time.

“I really like making sure the children understand what they did wrong and how it affects other people,” said Lane, who is also a trained counselor. “They can see how it impacts their parents, their classes, their community.”

Lane is responsible for 550 eighth-graders. Her duties include discipline, detentions for tardy students, attendance, event planning, student activities, planning for benchmark testing, special-education students and issues of safety and security.

With all of her responsibilities, Lane said, she cannot devote the time to meetings with the child, the child’s parents and the victims, which are required in a true restorative-justice model.

She is taking small steps toward restorative justice on a case-by-case basis. Instead of expelling one student this year for the standard 18 weeks, Lane cut the expulsion in half and allowed the child to return to campus in an inschool suspension program as long as the child attended scheduled meetings with the school counselor and a school resource officer.

The junior high school does not have an alternative setting like the high school does, Lane said. When a student is expelled from one public school in Arkansas, he typically is not allowed to attend another public school in the state.

“They are literally put back at home,” Lane said. “That’s not a really good alternative.”

Advancing restorative justice in Bentonville will require more training, she said.

“It’s going to take time to grow here and to learn what we can use it with and for,” she said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 11/25/2012