I remember the first time I was sent to
the principal’s office
my fifth-grade hands were shaking my
heart was racing and I was doing my
absolute best to hold back tears when I
finally made it through that walk of
shame in the hallway and I reached my
principal’s office she told me to sit as
she began to reprimand me Leila
she said you’re inappropriate behavior
will not be tolerated in this school
you’ve disappointed your teachers your
fellow classmates and myself for this
you will be receiving a referral a call
to your mother and you’ll go home for
the rest of the week now you would
assume I got in a fight or at least I
got caught cheating however I’m sad to
say that my crime that day was I wore a
zip-up jacket over my uniform that did
not have my elementary school emblem on
it I always wondered why they took such
a simple offense so seriously now
looking back I realized that my school
was creating a culture of fear by
instilling zero-tolerance policies this
made a common practice to suspend expel
and even report students to the police
for trivial infractions zero-tolerance
like most school policies was created
with the good intentions in the wake of
school tragedies like the Columbine
shooting zero tolerance was made popular
to prevent students from bringing drugs
and weapons to school the policy though
is now used to punish students for
anything that faculty and teachers deem
as misconduct schools that are governed
by zero tolerance do not treat deviance
on a case-by-case basis
this means that administration does not
take into account the hardships that
students struggle with at home and in
their personal lives which directly
affects their behavior students have
been suspended or expelled for
occurrences ranging all the way from
sleeping in the classroom to sharing
food at
– cursing in class to possessing tobacco
products on campus
unfortunately this novel idea of kicking
the troublemakers out of school did not
solve the problems of those individual
students or the campus however many
progressive schools and administrators
have begun to shed light on new
practices to combat antiquated nature of
zero tolerance
restorative justice has been highlighted
as one of the most effective methods to
reverse the damage done restorative
justice seeks to encourage
accountability repair harm and restore
relationships rather than require
retribution for wrongdoing this is most
commonly done by bringing the victim the
perpetrator and those in the community
who are harmed together and circle where
they may respectfully share the
perspectives feelings and concerns do my
research and personal experience I’ve
found that if we were to replace zero
tolerance with restorative justice in
schools we would find three distinct
improvements a rise in positive student
interactions a drop in disciplinary
problems in a narrower school to Prison
Pipeline let me tell you why restorative
justice especially when implemented at a
young age trained students to express
themselves in constructive ways one of
the main deficiencies among newer
generations is our inability to express
ourselves through words many young
people refuse to let themselves be
vulnerable and say when they felt
disrespected or embarrassed by the
actions of their peers when they’re
unable to communicate they resorts of
fighting and misbehaving to show what’s
really going on inside let me break down
an example of how restorative justice
would work in this situation imagine two
students get into a fight they would be
brought together in a circle with a
facilitator and any other student who
felt harmed here they would have a
discussion that would let them recognize
the root cause of the problem it would
also humanize both sides giving students
a chance to understand each other more
restorative justice is not necessarily
the answer to every form of misbehavior
but it does use a holistic process to
identify the psychological and
environmental issues that prompt
students to act out more effectively
ending the cycle of bad behavior I
volunteer in the kindergarten classroom
where children are brought into a circle
once a week to get comfortable with
expressing their thoughts and feelings I
found that after only a few sessions of
restorative justice these five and six
year olds were confronting class bullies
and grades even higher than their own
saying things like when you push me you
gave me a boo-boo that made me sad and
you really hurt my feelings when you
knocked over my block tower besides the
fact that these children are adorable
they are doing something that many
adults never even learn how to do
they’re learning skills that will
manifest into the way they treat others
and deal with their own emotions overall
increasing the positivity of their
interactions now I’m a psychology major
and if there’s one thing psychology
majors love to do its throw out fancy
terms to simplify behaviors or
situations when it comes to immediately
kicking a student out of school in the
name of zero tolerance the term that I
would use is self-fulfilling prophecy
you see students tend to embody the
labels that are imposed on them zero
tolerance is linked to the term bad kid
when students begin to wear that label
on their forehead and believe that
they’re bad kids they continue to
misbehave and deviate simply because
they’re led to think it’s just part of
their nature restorative justice negates
this negative self-fulfilling prophecy
giving students the chance to work
through their problems with a trained
facilitator and to see that a
disciplinary report does not define them
a report from the International
Institute of restorative practices
explored evidence of decreasing
disciplinary problems and schools that
began using these progressive methods
diet high school located in the south
side of Chicago recorded a 46 percent
decrease in the number of misconduct
reports
in an 82% decrease in the number of
in-school arrests since they began using
restorative justice and peace circles
similarly Cole middle school in West
Oakland found that implementing
restorative justice from just 2005 to
2009 led to an 87 percent decrease in
suspensions an expulsion dropped to zero
these schools are successfully
dissociating from zero tolerance and the
numbers proven of course these are only
two examples from the plethora of
schools nationwide that have began
sharing similar statistics about their
own student bodies ladies and gentlemen
this brings me to the heart of the
matter
one of the most detrimental impacts of
zero-tolerance is the widening school to
Prison Pipeline I became a volunteer in
several prisons about two years ago and
now six out of seven days a week you can
find me in the prison throughout this
time I have created some of the deepest
human connections I have ever
experienced
with the men and women I work with we
have shared very emotional and
transparent moments in which they’ve
told me their personal testimonies and
from this I realized that many of the
inmates were subjected to zero-tolerance
policies let me introduce you to my dear
friend
Lolita Barthel Lolita was arrested at 16
years old on her school campus and is
now nearing her 40th birthday in prison
when I asked the Lita about the first
time she was taken out of school without
hesitation she would call the time when
she wasn’t chosen to be in her
kindergarten play so she drew a line
across the chalkboard out of
embarrassment of rejection this became a
cycle Lolita would be hurt or rejected
it would not know how to properly deal
with her emotions because she was never
taught how to Lolita struggled to find
where she fit in she came from an area
where gangs were prominent
and she constantly found herself asking
the question do I belong in school or do
I belong in the game well after his
series of suspensions and explosions
lalita’s answer is quite clear school
didn’t want her
but the gang did Lolita school
essentially gave up on her they did not
take the time to address the fact that
she had no parental connection
whatsoever she was abused in horrifying
ways and she was terribly financially
insecure each of these factors
influencing her actions I wonder if I
learned all this about Lolita simply by
lending her a listening ear how hard
could it have been for schools to know
the same the problem is schools often
don’t listen many students miss
behaviors are cries for help
but rather than hear those cries with an
open compassionate heart we shut them
down with zero tolerance I want to be
clear that Lolita does not blame zero
tolerance for her decisions but it is
undeniable that the policy fed into her
inability to know who she was and where
she belongs
it’s difficult to create a definite
explanation of the school to Prison
Pipeline but what we do know is the
importance of staying in school being in
a learning environment does help prevent
engagement in delinquency and crime if
we were to use restorative justice as
the first plan of action and keep
students in school we may be able to
thin out the school to Prison Pipeline
substantially policy makers intended to
heal schools with zero tolerance but
instead made new deeper wounds clearly
restorative justice as an alternative
can enhance student interactions
decrease disciplinary problems and limit
the school to Prison Pipeline but in
order for restorative justice to be
successful it is imperative that every
single administrator faculty member and
teacher Buy
in and change the culture of punitive
punishment it is time we make this idea
a reality and spread more effective
disciplinary practices in schools
throughout the nation that’s why it’s
time to say outward zero tolerance and
in with restorative justice
[Music]
the principal’s office
my fifth-grade hands were shaking my
heart was racing and I was doing my
absolute best to hold back tears when I
finally made it through that walk of
shame in the hallway and I reached my
principal’s office she told me to sit as
she began to reprimand me Leila
she said you’re inappropriate behavior
will not be tolerated in this school
you’ve disappointed your teachers your
fellow classmates and myself for this
you will be receiving a referral a call
to your mother and you’ll go home for
the rest of the week now you would
assume I got in a fight or at least I
got caught cheating however I’m sad to
say that my crime that day was I wore a
zip-up jacket over my uniform that did
not have my elementary school emblem on
it I always wondered why they took such
a simple offense so seriously now
looking back I realized that my school
was creating a culture of fear by
instilling zero-tolerance policies this
made a common practice to suspend expel
and even report students to the police
for trivial infractions zero-tolerance
like most school policies was created
with the good intentions in the wake of
school tragedies like the Columbine
shooting zero tolerance was made popular
to prevent students from bringing drugs
and weapons to school the policy though
is now used to punish students for
anything that faculty and teachers deem
as misconduct schools that are governed
by zero tolerance do not treat deviance
on a case-by-case basis
this means that administration does not
take into account the hardships that
students struggle with at home and in
their personal lives which directly
affects their behavior students have
been suspended or expelled for
occurrences ranging all the way from
sleeping in the classroom to sharing
food at
– cursing in class to possessing tobacco
products on campus
unfortunately this novel idea of kicking
the troublemakers out of school did not
solve the problems of those individual
students or the campus however many
progressive schools and administrators
have begun to shed light on new
practices to combat antiquated nature of
zero tolerance
restorative justice has been highlighted
as one of the most effective methods to
reverse the damage done restorative
justice seeks to encourage
accountability repair harm and restore
relationships rather than require
retribution for wrongdoing this is most
commonly done by bringing the victim the
perpetrator and those in the community
who are harmed together and circle where
they may respectfully share the
perspectives feelings and concerns do my
research and personal experience I’ve
found that if we were to replace zero
tolerance with restorative justice in
schools we would find three distinct
improvements a rise in positive student
interactions a drop in disciplinary
problems in a narrower school to Prison
Pipeline let me tell you why restorative
justice especially when implemented at a
young age trained students to express
themselves in constructive ways one of
the main deficiencies among newer
generations is our inability to express
ourselves through words many young
people refuse to let themselves be
vulnerable and say when they felt
disrespected or embarrassed by the
actions of their peers when they’re
unable to communicate they resorts of
fighting and misbehaving to show what’s
really going on inside let me break down
an example of how restorative justice
would work in this situation imagine two
students get into a fight they would be
brought together in a circle with a
facilitator and any other student who
felt harmed here they would have a
discussion that would let them recognize
the root cause of the problem it would
also humanize both sides giving students
a chance to understand each other more
restorative justice is not necessarily
the answer to every form of misbehavior
but it does use a holistic process to
identify the psychological and
environmental issues that prompt
students to act out more effectively
ending the cycle of bad behavior I
volunteer in the kindergarten classroom
where children are brought into a circle
once a week to get comfortable with
expressing their thoughts and feelings I
found that after only a few sessions of
restorative justice these five and six
year olds were confronting class bullies
and grades even higher than their own
saying things like when you push me you
gave me a boo-boo that made me sad and
you really hurt my feelings when you
knocked over my block tower besides the
fact that these children are adorable
they are doing something that many
adults never even learn how to do
they’re learning skills that will
manifest into the way they treat others
and deal with their own emotions overall
increasing the positivity of their
interactions now I’m a psychology major
and if there’s one thing psychology
majors love to do its throw out fancy
terms to simplify behaviors or
situations when it comes to immediately
kicking a student out of school in the
name of zero tolerance the term that I
would use is self-fulfilling prophecy
you see students tend to embody the
labels that are imposed on them zero
tolerance is linked to the term bad kid
when students begin to wear that label
on their forehead and believe that
they’re bad kids they continue to
misbehave and deviate simply because
they’re led to think it’s just part of
their nature restorative justice negates
this negative self-fulfilling prophecy
giving students the chance to work
through their problems with a trained
facilitator and to see that a
disciplinary report does not define them
a report from the International
Institute of restorative practices
explored evidence of decreasing
disciplinary problems and schools that
began using these progressive methods
diet high school located in the south
side of Chicago recorded a 46 percent
decrease in the number of misconduct
reports
in an 82% decrease in the number of
in-school arrests since they began using
restorative justice and peace circles
similarly Cole middle school in West
Oakland found that implementing
restorative justice from just 2005 to
2009 led to an 87 percent decrease in
suspensions an expulsion dropped to zero
these schools are successfully
dissociating from zero tolerance and the
numbers proven of course these are only
two examples from the plethora of
schools nationwide that have began
sharing similar statistics about their
own student bodies ladies and gentlemen
this brings me to the heart of the
matter
one of the most detrimental impacts of
zero-tolerance is the widening school to
Prison Pipeline I became a volunteer in
several prisons about two years ago and
now six out of seven days a week you can
find me in the prison throughout this
time I have created some of the deepest
human connections I have ever
experienced
with the men and women I work with we
have shared very emotional and
transparent moments in which they’ve
told me their personal testimonies and
from this I realized that many of the
inmates were subjected to zero-tolerance
policies let me introduce you to my dear
friend
Lolita Barthel Lolita was arrested at 16
years old on her school campus and is
now nearing her 40th birthday in prison
when I asked the Lita about the first
time she was taken out of school without
hesitation she would call the time when
she wasn’t chosen to be in her
kindergarten play so she drew a line
across the chalkboard out of
embarrassment of rejection this became a
cycle Lolita would be hurt or rejected
it would not know how to properly deal
with her emotions because she was never
taught how to Lolita struggled to find
where she fit in she came from an area
where gangs were prominent
and she constantly found herself asking
the question do I belong in school or do
I belong in the game well after his
series of suspensions and explosions
lalita’s answer is quite clear school
didn’t want her
but the gang did Lolita school
essentially gave up on her they did not
take the time to address the fact that
she had no parental connection
whatsoever she was abused in horrifying
ways and she was terribly financially
insecure each of these factors
influencing her actions I wonder if I
learned all this about Lolita simply by
lending her a listening ear how hard
could it have been for schools to know
the same the problem is schools often
don’t listen many students miss
behaviors are cries for help
but rather than hear those cries with an
open compassionate heart we shut them
down with zero tolerance I want to be
clear that Lolita does not blame zero
tolerance for her decisions but it is
undeniable that the policy fed into her
inability to know who she was and where
she belongs
it’s difficult to create a definite
explanation of the school to Prison
Pipeline but what we do know is the
importance of staying in school being in
a learning environment does help prevent
engagement in delinquency and crime if
we were to use restorative justice as
the first plan of action and keep
students in school we may be able to
thin out the school to Prison Pipeline
substantially policy makers intended to
heal schools with zero tolerance but
instead made new deeper wounds clearly
restorative justice as an alternative
can enhance student interactions
decrease disciplinary problems and limit
the school to Prison Pipeline but in
order for restorative justice to be
successful it is imperative that every
single administrator faculty member and
teacher Buy
in and change the culture of punitive
punishment it is time we make this idea
a reality and spread more effective
disciplinary practices in schools
throughout the nation that’s why it’s
time to say outward zero tolerance and
in with restorative justice
[Music]
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