An innovative approach to student discipline in public schools is now being put into action at Los Banos High School, school administrators told the Westside Express last week.
“There’s no doubt the Restorative Justice system is working here at Los Banos High,” LBHS Principal Jason Waltman said. “We’ve seen continued improvement in resolving student conflict and productively ushering student offenders into programs that avoid a more serious outcome.”
Waltman was referring to a system in law enforcement practices starting in the 1970’s designed to hold offenders responsible for their crimes while giving them a way to reform themselves and refrain from further offenses.
Today, as the concept of Restorative Justice has developed, public schools have adapted the idea to deal with behavioral problems arising in the country’s public schools.
“In Los Banos schools, we provide an alternative system to respond to infractions,” Los Banos Unified School District Certified Wellness Program Counselor Jazmine Landeros recently told the Express. “This is where we counsel students to take responsibility for their actions and learn to become part of school in a positive way. That’s Restorative Justice.”
When students persist in creating serious problems, Landeros noted law enforcement may finally have to be called in.
Even then, local police officers themselves are on board with the overall aims of the Restorative Justice approach.
“Fifteen years ago, with bullying in particular, it was ‘Suspension, Expulsion, Prosecution,'” Los Banos Police Department School Resource Officer Teresa Provencio recently told the Express.
“Now, it’s evolved into a form of strategic negotiation between a harasser and the person who feels wronged,” Provencio added, acknowledging that “there is a lot of counseling involved.”
Los Banos High School’s application of Restorative Justice techniques has benefited from its interface with state and national programs, Waltman reported.
“We’ve been working with the Restorative Justice League since last year,” he said, “using funds from a three-year grant to bring a staffer on board for training.”
(The Restorative Justice League, with programs active nationally, in its mission statement declares its intent to establish “the social culture and behavioral supports necessary for schools to be safe and caring, and provide an effective learning environment for all,” while striving “to end the constant school to prison pipeline that is existent in our schools … in under-served communities.” See https://restorativejusticeleague.org.)
Waltman explained the monies make it possible for a League staffer to educate LBHS staff about how the Restorative Justice works at the public-school level.
“That trainer holds sessions for high school staff five days a week over the implementation of the system,” Waltman said.
He noted new approaches to school conflict, which marshal student peer participation, have proven promising.
“Much of what the program is concerned with is how to intervene in a problem before it happens, or before it explodes into something else,” he said. “To that end, we have a Restorative Justice Club here at school, where student volunteers who have an interest can join in.”
“Talking to other students can be easier for kids in the system,” Waltman stressed. “Many times, with student-to-student contact, it’s possible to intercede in a potential problem and stop it from continuing.”
