Welcome to a brief, lo-fi overview of RESTORATIVE PRACTICES at Brattleboro Union High School. In this slideshow, we’ll discuss how we talk about restorative practices and how we implement it. Please enjoy.

Look: I’ll admit to being uncomfortable with jargon. So if the way this slideshow uses words like “harm” and “repair” and “circle” makes you cringe a little bit, I understand.

But please know that Restorative Practices is not some newfangled gimmick. There’s reason to suspect that it’s a much older and more deeply patterned form of conflict resolution than the strictly punitive one. Additionally, some people balk at the term “Restorative Justice” because of the punitive vibe of the word “Justice,” or because it sounds like something else …

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The word “Justice”—which denotes fairness, moral treatment, and civility—often reminds us of terms like “vigilante justice” or “social justice” or “criminal justice system.” These are all related semantically, but they are not identical. This is why we use the term “Restorative Practices.”

The goal here is not to change the words every few years to keep folks on their toes, but to adequately describe what we’re doing here for decades.

Now let’s describe it …

Simply put, RESTORATIVE PRACTICES seek to address harm and repair harm. This means facilitating dialogue between people who have had harmful interpersonal conflict—often students, but maybe adults, or students and adults. Often, harm is mutual.

A typical restorative process usually involves meeting with the people who were involved separately in preparation for a meeting we sometimes call a circle. This is an opportunity to REPAIR harm and RESTORE connections between community and all involved. The emphasis on REPAIR is what differentiates restorative practices from other forms of justice.

The intention of a restorative circle is to reach an informal agreement that repairs harm, helps prevent incidents in the future, and builds interpersonal bonds and lines of communication that proactively strengthen community. The crude depiction on our left demonstrates how this process starts with REPAIR and then spirals into PREVENTION OF FUTURE HARM and then ultimately serves to FOSTER COMMUNITY by transforming it or preserving those elements of community that help us thrive.

It won’t always work.

- Agreements won’t always hold, and conflicts will sometimes recur. Learning requires occasional failure, and this is a learning community.

- It takes a lot of time. Sometimes weeks or months.

- Sometimes people resolve the conflict without help. This is okay.

- Sometimes people don’t want to resolve their conflicts restoratively. The process is based on consent and choice,, and this is especially important for people who feel harmed.

Restorative Justice is not a disciplinary policy, and it doesn’t supercede any administrative decision. It’s an alternative to punishment for willing participants.

A restorative meeting is not a gotcha moment, and it’s not in any way related to academic or professional assessment. We address harm; we don’t assess or assign punishment.

The restorative office does not do investigations.

Anyone can make a referral: in person, or through email, or as a note appended to an administrative referral.

Many times it DOES work. People give something, they get something, they don’t always solve things, they don’t always end up besties, but they talk, and they repair harm, and they uphold community.

And I know it’s cheesy, but it’s better than simmering discord and resentment. There is a lot of literature about the relative impact of different kinds of justice, and anyone interested is welcome to hit up the BUHS Restorative Practices coordinator or panel for recommended reading or meaningful discussion.

Almost everything we do here is for the learners. We guide learning. Please keep that in mind when considering why we have a student Restorative Panel and try to do student-facilitated circles as often as possible.

It is a special thing to give students the skills and tools to cooperate as young adults by watching older adults be vulnerable and confident, cooperative and understanding.

Thank you for your support. Much love and respect.

-Kersey

Thanks for your time. This slideshow was compiled by John Kersey. I teach English at BUHS and coordinate our Restorative Practices program.

I can be reached at jkersey@wsesdvt.org.

The restorative office is in room 104D, in the admin hall, between the Bears Den and Counseling.

The Restorative Panel meets every Thursday, during ACE block. Anyone is welcome.