{"id":86,"date":"2009-10-16T09:50:17","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T16:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=86"},"modified":"2010-01-02T22:58:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-03T05:58:25","slug":"san-francisco-school-board-supports-restorative-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco School Board Supports Restorative Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 13, 2009 the San Franciso Unified School District\u00a0unanimously voted to “develop a plan designed to replace some student suspensions with more “restorative” repercussions<\/a>.”\u00a0 Instead of simply suspending students who violate school rules, restorative interventions will be used.<\/p>\n

Restorative justice interventions are especially relevant and necessary for youth.\u00a0 Who can deny that childhood and teen years are a time of learning and discovery?\u00a0 We have “ages of maturity” like turning 18 and 21 in the United States as markers of our ability to figure out how the world works and our place in it.\u00a0 Of course sometimes youth (as well as adults) will make mistakes and do things that hurt others and themselves.\u00a0 If we want people to learn from their mistakes we need to give the opportunity to refect and engage meaningfully in problem solving.<\/p>\n

When we punish and criticize, we set people up to be defensive.\u00a0 People, especially youth, who are defensive are not as reception to change and growth.\u00a0 And who doesn’t get defensive when they are criticized?\u00a0 It is normal to defend ourselves when our value and worth is attacked.\u00a0 It is a sign of health actually for youth to be defensive.\u00a0 It shows they have self-worth and care about themselves.<\/p>\n

In 2001 a short article was published on my personal experience in a restorative conference when my then 8th graders son was assaulted at school. <\/a> At the time of the incident, I was conducting a juvenile restorative pilot for the Honolulu Police Department and realized that our family too needed a restorative intervention.\u00a0 I was able to arrange one, and was a remarkable experience to sit in a circle with my son, husband, the offending boy, his father, the school principal of the elementary school that both boys had previously attended, and a kind facilitator.\u00a0 After the restorative intervention my son and the boy had no problems again in their relationship and our family had new found understanding for he and his family.\u00a0 Community was built that day that almost 10 years now.<\/p>\n

Other school districts should follow San Francisco’s example, and the example of England’s, Sefton Council, <\/a>which has been using restorative interventions with tremendous success for sometime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 13, 2009 the San Franciso Unified School District\u00a0unanimously voted to “develop a plan designed to replace some student suspensions with more “restorative” repercussions.”\u00a0 Instead of simply suspending students who violate school rules, restorative interventions will be used. Restorative justice interventions are especially relevant and necessary for youth.\u00a0 Who can deny that childhood and teen years are a time of learning and discovery?\u00a0 We have “ages of maturity” like turning 18 and 21 in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}