The Misuse of Restorative Justice

I believe the intentions of Restorative Justice in schools are noble. According to Science and Literacy,

Restorative justice offers an effective and compassionate alternative to traditional disciplinary approaches, with the potential to positively impact school culture and student well-being. By prioritizing relationship-building and harm repair, teachers can create an environment that is safe and supportive, allowing students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. In this way, restorative justice is an approach that can bring about lasting positive change in schools.

Sadly, I have seen many schools serving challenged neighborhoods misuse Restorative Justice in a way that hinders growth in students. As a founder of a K12 school, working in public, charter and private schools and through teaching courses at the university level, I am able to see how schools are so focused on “healing” students that they are not challenging students enough so that they can be successful. When I teach college students who struggle to read, write or do any form of academic rigor, I wonder how they are able to go through K12 school and come into college so unprepared. Through conversations with undergraduate students, where they shared how their schools had low expectations of them, I realize that there is reason for my concern. Sometimes the healing process that Restorative Justice involves, sacrifices academic rigor and character development. These same schools that are seeking to heal students, have ultimately created unsafe environments for learning. Students are too afraid to even use the bathroom, because the healing process of Restorative Justice has labeled accountability for a student’s actions as harmful. Restorative Justice also can appear to enable students, more than empower them to do well academically. I remember working with a 10th grader who was brilliant, but in the school she attended before mine, was not made to do Algebra 1 problems. Instead she was passed on year after year, each time saying to her parents “Oh she doesn’t have to do all of that, because we understand her situation.” This was a child who was orphaned at a young age, due to her mom’s drug use. It took my school a lot of time just to make her see that she was capable of academic rigor. Over and over I see the same struggle, often in diverse communities and this has puzzled me, until I did some research into the origins of Restorative Justice. I was surprised to find that it is not an educational philosophy, but instead is something born out of the criminal justice system and adapted for K12 education. This gives me great pause, because adapting something that was formerly used with criminals, makes me wonder, how do we see the process of schooling?

According to the Department of Justice, “Restorative Justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior.”  I can appreciate the heart behind seeking wisdom from this theory, however I do worry about how the origins of it foster the creation of generalizations that cloud teachers’ ability to visualize their students in a better light. Most school founders and leaders that I have seen who use this philosophy in a school setting have not been from the community or ethnicity of the people they are seeking to “save.” However, they embrace Restorative Justice as if it is THE answer to providing a quality educational experience to the students. To help you understand why it is problematic to claim Restorative Justice as a core theory of practice in ANY school (no matter who the population is), let me share a bit of its history from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime:

The modern concept of restorative justice developed in the 1970s in North America, when the first restorative justice programmes emerged. In 1974, two probation workers in Kitchener, Canada, brought victims and offenders of a vandalism case together to deal directly with the wrongdoing and discuss ways to repair the harm. This successful experiment led to the establishment of the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) under the auspices of the Christian Mennonite Committee, and provided the inspiration that led to other innovations in North America and beyond. As the programme grew and developed over the following decades, it generated a new paradigm for thinking about crime that eventually became known as ‘restorative justice’.

The roots of Restorative Justice are in the criminal justice system, not in educating CHILDREN. When going into neighborhoods where fathers may be absent, income is low and even the community may have high crime, the assumption is made that the children growing up in these space and their families are inferior, due to the assumed trauma and harm they have experienced. When a school embraces Restorative Justice, there is the tendency to lower expectations of students with regards to academics, behavior and character, because the lens that the child is seen lowers expectations from the teacher.  What many people fail to realize is that when a parent takes the steps necessary to place their child in a charter or private school that opens up other opportunities for their child, that is a sign that the parent wants their child to be able to have opportunities that they did not have. That is a sign that the parent recognizes the challenges of the neighborhood and that even their own life is not enough to give the child what they need. Most children in a charter or private school are there because the parent CHOSE to place them there. They had the presence of mind and love for their child to give them something better. Sadly, because Restorative Justice is a motivating factor in these schools, the teachers and leaders don’t challenge the student, don’t hold the child accountable for unacceptable behavior, and overall think that they are somehow restoring the child, by not holding them to a high standard. This is not RESTORATIVE, but it is DESTRUCTIVE. It is destructive because in this really subtle way, it’s telling the children that they are allowed to take on the characteristics of some of the criminals that may live in the neighborhood they are trying to escape! It is destructive because it takes away the belief that they ARE something so much more than their surroundings. Many of these families already have hopes and dreams to rise above their circumstances and they only need the opportunity to show what they are capable of. They are more than potential, but they have already realized their greatness, but just need the opportunity to display it. 

I was the principal of a school that served Ward 7 in SE DC for 2 years. I still do consulting for the school and maintain a close relationship. I did not use Restorative Justice and those students rose to the occasion. I only used a strong belief in their greatness. Once those students recognized that I saw them, their parents and the members of the community as equally human, they embraced the whispers of greatness that rang in their ears and hearts. Once the mothers realized that I would support their desire to see their child rise above the challenges of the neighborhood, a sisterhood was formed. An example of this was when a mom came to my office with tears in her eyes. Her daughter was a very strong student, and she wanted me to know how much she wanted to make sure her daughter was able to achieve more than she could. She would not tell me what her life had been like, but I had a pretty good hint of how she had made some choices that were hard to overcome. Yet, she said to me as she wept, “I don’t want my daughter to be like me. I want her to have opportunities that I didn’t have.” Even though the mother had made some choices that she found hard to overcome, she was meticulous in making sure her daughter (who was also so well behaved and performed well academically) did not follow the same path. This type of mother did not need Restorative Justice, she just needed a high-quality education so her daughter could go as far as her education could take her.

I have never used Restorative Justice, because when I think of my ancestors who overcame slavery without theories like Restorative Justice, I know that there is a better and even simpler way. Equitable education does not excuse students when their character is not what it should be. Equitable education does not withhold educational experiences that challenge the students to think critically and to perform competitively in all subjects. Restorative Justice if used inappropriately, will actually handicap students who are trying to overcome the challenges of the community where they live. It clips their wings from soaring above those challenges. Yet, simply giving them the same educational experiences as the most elite public, charter and private schools will give them the tools to participate in our free society. I remember when I first became the head of school at a school that was in a challenged community and I found out the high school teachers were reading to the high school students in English class. I made them stop and told them to have the students read for themselves as homework. Doing that one little change altered how the students saw themselves. They came to see that they can read various challenging books and understand them. Restorative Justice assumes that students from a certain community cannot read and understand for themselves. I have gone on to teach college freshman who graduated from schools that embraced Restorative Justice practices and most times they struggle to read the assignments that I posted. When I asked them why they were struggling, they told me that their high school teachers did not require them to read a lot. 

The word “Restorative” implies that they did something to break away from society. Justice implies that they have done something wrong that needs a response to help them do better. Restorative Justice was created to help those who have lived a life of crime how to be reintroduced into society. In my experience, most children in these spaces have not lost hope of being more! The children of the most challenged neighborhoods, often do not need Restorative Justice because they are still moldable and able to change the trajectory of their lives. High expectations, accountability and agency are enough to achieve the change that we want to see in them.

My suggestion is that Restorative Justice should not be the core philosophy for academics and behavioral management for ANY school, but should be one of the many tools we use on a case by case basis. If we end up with a student who has demonstrated criminal or dangerous behavior or has already gone through a process of being expelled or rejected because of unmanageable behavior or has already been in the juvenile justice system, then maybe Restorative Justice is appropriate, but NOT for most of the children in the school. If conflicts arise that need a gentler process for mediating the conflict, then maybe Restorative Justice is necessary. To make it a core philosophy of the school, communicates the assumptions that are being made about the community and the children being served. Instead, provide the same rigorous academics, high standard for behavior and character and overall high expectations for every single child as if they are equal to the children of high income (and often White) communities.  

We must be careful about Restorative Justice, because it not only originated in the criminal justice system, but it was also framed through Christian mission work in the justice system. Historically many Christian denominations held to the belief that certain populations are inferior and this was pervasive in American Christianity. We have to be careful not to find ourselves being inspired by this thinking in the work that we do in struggling communities. Restorative Justice in the hands of those who may still struggle with tendencies of unconscious White supremacy, can breed learning experiences grounded in low expectations. We cannot uplift a community if it is never challenged and supported to rise above it. The goal of Restorative Justice was to improve how our society relates to CRIMINALS. It was also created to help the outcasts of society to reinter society. No matter where the school is located, we are dealing with CHILDREN who deserve every bit of hope and high expectations as any child. We should provide counseling, opportunities for self-expression, affirmation, as any student would need these resources, but I have seen too often when Restorative Justice is misused. In my experience, most children I have met from these challenged places did not have these struggles and simply needed someone to hold them to a higher standard in education and character.

I will end with this little story. I do believe in the parts of Restorative Justice that give space for students to share their challenges and work through them in a healthy way. However, accountability is still essential for building the character needed to progress in life. The Living Water School hired a new teacher and this teacher had higher expectations of the students than the previous teacher. One of our students who has been notorious for plagiarizing her essays, was caught by the teacher after she found her paper on another website, written by someone else. The teacher did not accept the student’s essay. Well, the student emailed me (since I am the head of school) about how the teacher made her feel and that she did not feel the teacher respects the students, etc. I asked the student one question, “Did you plagiarize your paper?” She admitted to doing so. I then said “Thank you for trusting me with your feelings. So let’s try this. Try not plagiarizing your essays and I will talk with the teacher and maybe you both can build trust in one another.” I acknowledged how she felt, but she was still held accountable for something that was very important. She has to learn not to plagiarize. If she doesn’t, then she will not do well in college and actually is cultivating a habit of being dishonest. She also cannot learn to write well by being allowed to plagiarize, which in turn will hinder her future success.  My guess is that Restorative Justice is supposed to present a balance between accountability and providing the safe space for students to work through their hurts and challenges. Sadly, many teachers misuse Restorative Justice and are imbalanced in how they implement it in the classroom. For Black and Brown students this is especially harmful, because to overcome the odds that await them in the world, they are not being prepared to succeed. Their hearts are in the right place, but many teachers only provide a safe space. Their misunderstanding of Restorative Justice, hinders them from creating an environment that inspires academic growth and character development that can help a student thrive no matter where they find themselves in the future.