Mercury News - A 10-year restorative justice experiment in city schools that uses a carrot instead of a stick on students with discipline issues will be expanded to all 86 schools in five years, officials announced.
At the 27 schools that now use alternatives to traditional discipline responses, officials cite a drop in suspensions and chronic absenteeism and an increase in graduation rates.
"These positive impacts speak to the need to accelerate the programs in the next five years," said Oakland schools Superintendent Antwan Wilson. "Restorative justice gives students a voice to be seen as individuals who can problem-solve and understand the circumstances that impacted another person's feelings."
David Yusem, program manager for the school district's restorative justice programs, said a "harm circle" can be used to resolve a conflict rather than kicking a student out of school for a week.
"If there has been a harm, we bring that person responsible for it together with the person who has been harmed," Yusem said. "We talk about what happened, who has been impacted and how and what is going to happen to make it right."
In schools that have the programs, suspensions dropped by more than half over three years starting in 2011, from 34 percent to 14 percent, according to a new school district report.
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