Civil Rights of Children in school

In this editorial The New York Times discusses the civil rights of children in school.
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Culture of Care and new federal school discipline guidelines

New Federal School Discipline Guidelines

On Wednesday of this week new federal school discipline guidelines were released. These guidelines support the work of a Culture of Care in schools. In particular, the guidelines recognize the need to change the culture of schools so that not only are students cared for in terms of their learning but also they are cared for as individuals, and in the case of ethnically diverse students, as culturally located individuals.
In addition, these guidelines recognize the importance of the other two foundational concepts that the Culture of Care is based on. Restorative justice and restorative practices are endorsed as offering alternative discipline responses to wrongdoing and conflict in the classroom. In addition, recognition is given to the importance of building the capacity of students and teachers to respond to problems nonviolently. Also the importance of creating a culturally responsive pedagogy of relationships is recognized in these guidelines.
Congratulations to those schools who have adopted the Culture of Care. It appears that these schools are already in compliance with the new policies. These schools serve as models of best practices to other schools.
Thanks to Research Assistant Karla Garcia for providing this link to a number of resources related to the announcement of these new guidlines.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/01/federal_school_discipline_guidelines_heres_how_to_stop_racial_discrimination_in_the_classroom.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding these guidelines.

With best regards
Dr Tom Cavanagh

Reaction to gun violence at Arapahoe High School in Colorado

This morning I am reflecting on the gun violence that occurred at Arapahoe High School in Colorado yesterday. As many of you know my home is in Colorado. Also most of my work involving the Culture of Care and Restorative Justice is occurring in Aurora Public Schools. This school district is also located in the Denver Metropolitan Area, just as Arapahoe High School is. I suggest that there are two lessons we have learned from creating a Culture of Care at Hinkley High School that can help us create safe and peaceful schools.
First, we need to provide a safe place for students to express their emotions, particularly when they are angry. At present we do not provide this safe place. At Hinkley this safe place occurs in the talking circles that occur regularly in classrooms and throughout the school.
Second, we need to build the capacity of students to respond to problems and conflict non violently. At Hinkley students are learning there are peaceful alternatives to responding to wrongdoing and conflict with violence.
If schools adopt restorative justice practices in the classroom as a basis for creating a culture of care, these schools will be peaceful and safe.

Gallup poll results support Culture of Care

A recent Gallup poll asked participants to call to mind the name of their best teacher. Then they were asked to think of the one word that best described that teacher. What do you suppose was the most common descriptor?

Brilliant?
No.
Demanding?
No.

Passionate??
Nice try, but guess again.

The most common word to describe the best teachers was… caring.

Uh oh. Caring is one of those fuzzy, cuddly terms that makes some people – at least guys like me – squirm a bit. I squirm because caring is a word that lays a claim on me. A person can be brilliant, demanding or passionate about their work; but none of those words requires attentiveness to the needs, hopes, and fears of the people around me. But caring lays claim to my time, energy, and heart. And as any teacher – or parent – worth her salt can tell you, caring looks a little different for each recipient.

For the eager, caring looks like a challenge.
For the lazy, a prod.
For the procrastinator, a deadline.
For the panicked, an extension.
For the discouraged, a pep talk.
For the lonely and ignored, an ear.
For the anxious, perspective.
For the proud, gentle questions that identify insecurities and instill self-awareness and a desire for support.
For the slower learner, a lunch hour lost – never lost, just repurposed – to reteach.
For the confused and fearful, a voice of encouragement, “This is the way; walk in it.”

A New York Times article

The New York Times, 11/13/13 – Emerging research links childhood trauma to students’ attendance, behavior, academics, and health, and underscores the counterproductive effects of punitive school discipline approaches.

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Code of Conduct Supporting Restorative Justice

Please click on these links to learn about a code of conduct that supports restorative justice that was adopted by a school.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3w4L6oc8iK-MDJLTTBDLUZzY0k/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3w4L6oc8iK-d1NjYXhtZzFpUDQ/edit?usp=sharing

RJ article in Christian Science Monitor

Christian Science Monitor



Is 'zero tolerance' is bad for education?
Zero-tolerance policies have become commonplace in American schools, however some, including the Pennsylvania ACLU, say that schools are taking zero tolerance too far.


By James Norton, Contributing blogger / November 15, 2013


Critics of 'zero tolerance' say the policy leaves little room for alternative conflict resolution, such as restorative justice. Here, several educators and administrators participate in a Restorative Justice training session in Oakland, Calif., March 14.


Does a "zero-tolerance" approach to school discipline keep students safer or disrupt the educational process? The answer is, of course, complicated, but a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania [PDF of report here] presents an argument that the approach has sprawled greatly from its original anti-gun goals and that the impact has largely been to push students out of the classroom.

James Norton got his professional start at the Monitor as an online news producer, before moving over to edit international news during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since leaving the Monitor in 2004, he has worked as a radio producer, author, and food blogger.

Zero tolerance was introduced in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, and, based on a 1995 state law, it required the expulsion of students found possessing a (broadly defined) "weapon."

But as the study goes on to note:

In Pennsylvania, as around the nation, zero tolerance took on a life of its own. Particularly over the last 15 years, it infected the culture of schools so that an even broader range of behaviors and conflicts, like school uniform violations or talking back to adults, became the basis for removal from school, even when removal was not required by law."

Sacrificed on the altar of order in schools: things like due process, conflict resolution, and the exploration of solutions to prevent future conflicts. And alternative discipline systems that focus on principles like restorative justice are sidelined as well; there's no opportunity to work through a collaborative process when mandatory suspensions are the default answer to many or most problems.

An Education Week story about the report illuminated the sheer number of suspensions in the system:

Pennsylvania school leaders issued an average of 10.1 suspensions for every 100 students during the 2011-2012 school year, the report says. The York City School District, which had the highest suspension rate in the state that year, issued 91 suspensions for every 100 students, the report says. Some students may have been suspended multiple times.

Under zero-tolerance policies, students in various states have faced suspension or expulsion for offenses ranging from playing with airsoft guns in their own yards, crafting a gun shape from a Pop Tart, and making gun hand gestures.


In aggregate, the policies are a parallel to the criminal justice system and its 1990s/early '00s rush toward mandatory minimum sentences. Both zero tolerance and mandatory minimums take discretion away from the authorities on hand to enforce rules, and both hand down sometimes draconian sentences that inflict harm far out of proportion to the offense in question, largely to satisfy a broad public desire to "get tough" on a specific problem.

While there's no getting around the fact that there is a guns-in-schools problem in America and a discipline-in-schools problem in many districts, evidence suggests that a broad-brush zero-tolerance approach to anything often causes more problems than it resolves; treating students like prisoners may do more to harm education than it does to save it. In fact, treating prisoners like prisoners are currently treated may cause more problems than it solves, but that's another series of studies entirely.


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