Ep.6 Restorative Justice Pt.1
Ellen Willoughby:
So welcome to this episode of Drinking From the Firehose, a podcast for school leaders. I am your host, Ellen Willoughby. On today's podcast, our topic is restorative justice. Over the last few years, restorative justice or restorative practices has been buzzing in the education world and we wanted to bring in an expert on the subject to share not only what it is but to learn about the practices and the impact restorative justice has on students, schools, and the community, and I am beyond excited to introduce my guest Dr. Angela Ward.
Angela Ward:
Thank you.
Ellen Willoughby:
So Dr. Ward, you were the founder and CEO of Toward Equity Consulting and you serve on national, regional and local equity groups.
Angela Ward:
Yes.
Ellen Willoughby:
You also led this work with AISD. So we are excited to have you and let's just kick it off and have you share what is restorative justice?
Angela Ward:
So in my role with Austin Independent School District, what we did was frame restorative practices as a culturally responsive approach to the work that we do with students and families and so we looked at ... It was very important to me to understand the history behind something called restorative and what is that and with my background I have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice so that word justice really piqued my curiosity and knowing how school systems typically operate as an on-ramp to the criminal justice system, we didn't want to reinvent ... I guess not the word reinvent, we didn't want to further solidify that reality in our schools, and so I really wanted to understand what is this thing they're calling restorative justice. What does it mean, what does it look like, what does it sound like in our schools.
Angela Ward:
So what I uncovered was no it didn't start in the criminal justice system, it's from practices that are thousands of years old. And restorative practices originate in indigenous communities and indigenous history and they are practices that have been practiced for thousands of years and they continue to be practiced by indigenous people who live amongst us. And so I wanted to make sure that bringing this work to Austin Independent School District that we were really focused on as educators telling the truth about the work.
Ellen Willoughby:
Right, absolutely.
Angela Ward:
We framed it as culturally responsive because it's important that we make people stop and think about the fact that this is something that has been co-opted by the criminal justice system and the social work fields very well. It's been popularized in both and often you hear that it started in the criminal justice system -
Ellen Willoughby:
Yeah, that's exactly what -
Angela Ward:
Which is not true.
Ellen Willoughby:
Oh interesting.
Angela Ward:
So as educators, we felt duty-bound to teach the true history of restorative practices. So we look at them as practices that the indigenous communities used to maintain harmony in their communities. And they also used those practices to solve conflict and repair harm. But what's popularized is, "Oh, this is an alternative to discipline."
Ellen Willoughby:
Right.
Angela Ward:
No, it's not an alternative to discipline. It is a way of being, it is a way of recognizing how each of us shows up in the world. It's recognizing that each of us has unique ... Oh my headphones are falling off.
Ellen Willoughby:
That's okay.
Angela Ward:
There you go. Recognizing that each of us has particular ways that we operate in the world, we bring our own lived experiences into schools and framing it as culturally responsive restorative practices opens the space for adults in our schools to see children as unique, living human beings, who each come with their own gifts, their own ways of experiencing the world, their own unique needs, and really helping us understand that we have to create those identity affirming school spaces so that our students feel safe, welcome and included.
Ellen Willoughby:
Great, and so when I heard you ... So first of all, I am completely shocked that it didn't start in the criminal justice system. Even with research that I've done on it, so I think that that's something ... I just want to stamp so people understand that. Because we do, we talk about the school to prison pipeline and I also want to stamp that you talked about like ... This isn't a program, this is truly like you said, a way of being. So when we ... I want to make sure I'm using the right terminology. So is there a difference between the restorative justice and restorative practices. Like just to frame that appropriately.
Angela Ward:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So when you think about restorative practices, restorative justice fits within it. So often we talk about it from a multi-tiered system of support. So in my former role in Austin ISD we approached it from that multi-tiered system of support where social-emotional learning was that strong tier one. So there's three tiers in that multi-tiered system of support. At tier one you have community building, you have morning meetings at elementary school, you have advisory at secondary. You have all of these ways of building relationships, building trusting relationships with students, with adults, with families, with community members. Tier two is when there may be a conflict that occurs. There may be something that removes a child from the regular learning environment that maybe they're not able to grasp a concept in class and so they need an intervention, they need a little bit of tutoring, they need a support. Those things happen at tier two.
Angela Ward:
Justice comes in often when we're talking about discipline, when we're talking about conflict that has caused harm to someone and it often occurs at tier three when we have exhausted all of the typical ways of intervening for children where we intervene for them academically, we intervene for them ... Often we don't look at the academic when we're talking about restorative practices.
Ellen Willoughby:
Yeah, most definitely. Like again, I hear it, every example or any time that I've seen it, it's all about the discipline, and it's yes ... So I'll let you continue that.
Angela Ward:
That's how our state frames it as restorative discipline practices. We kind of push back on that a little bit because we need our teachers to see all schooling as important in regards to restorative practices. So at tier two we're looking at academic, we're looking at social, we're looking at emotional, we're looking at are they able to be in a school space and feel that their identity is affirmed. That's at tiers one and two. At tier three, often their identity is not being affirmed, they're not making connections with each other, with their peers. They're not making connections with one adult at least on a campus who they feel like has their back, they feel like sees them as a unique person with gifts and often they reach that tier three level of that multi-tiered system of support because we have not put the processes, the structures, and the engagements in place along the way for them to feel like a viable member of the school community. So at tier three, that's when justice may occur because a harm has happened. Some behavior has occurred that has removed them from a strong tier one, social-emotional learning where everyone's getting along. We're all in harmony and we have some things here and there, but ultimately we're able to function together.
Angela Ward:
Tier three is where we will bring in community members. We will bring in people who the student feels like contributes to their social-emotional well-being. Some people who have their back, people who may be able to support them in ways that the school typically cannot. You may bring in a pastor, you may bring in a social worker. A social worker will come in at tier one also. Tier two, I'm sorry. But it's really looking at those wrap-around services and approaching that justice from a true justice standpoint and not throwing the book at the child.
Angela Ward:
Usually when you hear justice and discipline in our schools, you hear problem child, and we try to reframe that as, "No, they're not problem children. There's a problem with the process. There's a problem with the environment. There's a problem where the student is not being able to access their full potential because the environment that has been set up for them is not optimal for them." So what do we do as adults, what can we do as their peers when we notice that there's something happening where our peer and our student is not able to access the learning environment in the way that we need them to to be successful. That is a culturally responsive approach to restorative practices.
Ellen Willoughby:
So take me back to ... So if I am a school leader and I am really wanting to do this right, what do those practices look like at tier one and tier two and tier three?
Angela Ward:
Tier one is ... So restorative practices happens on a continuum, and I think it's Ted Wachtel, and I can't think of the other author, but he wrote about the social discipline window and he also ... There's more research out there on the continuum of restorative responses. So the continuum looks at tier one we're having affective statements, affective questions. So those statements and questions that make a student feel seen and heard and we're attending to things that will help our emotions be more in alignment with community and harmony. And so you ask questions that engage a student in reflecting on how they are feeling, how they are doing, what things they like, what things they dislike, and being very clear in gaining an understanding of those dislikes because those are going to be your cues as an adult. If I do this, this may occur. So really being in tune to getting to know your students.
Angela Ward:
We typically do these things anyway as educators. We get to know our students, we get to know each other as adults, and you set up those opportunities to do those things on a regular basis. We don't just do it to open the school year. We do it to open every week. We do it to close out the week. So you do those small impromptu conferences also with students when there seems to be something that's gotten their just equilibrium off. We want to get them back to community. It's something we often would say. How do we give them back to community which is tier one. Where are we able to engage in those questions and statements.
Angela Ward:
Also looking at a simple way of engaging in tier one, restorative practices, is to implement what people call check-in, check-up, check-out circles. They don't have to be circles. They can literally be, "Hey, what's up. What's going on with you?" You have checked in with them.
Ellen Willoughby:
Exactly.
Angela Ward:
"All right, what are you going to do this weekend?" Or, "What are you looking forward to when you go home today?" You may get a clue that everyone doesn't want to have that conversation with you if you're not getting eye contact from all of the students. That's a clue. And so paying attention to the clues that children give you, recognizing when something is off kilter, those are restorative practices. You don't need a book, you don't need someone to come teach you that. Those are things you do regularly because you care about children and you care about being in community with people.
Angela Ward:
Then those small impromptu conferences, that's on pretty much the middle of that continuum. It's where you're creating those spaces to have trust building relationships with children. You're creating opportunities to walk and talk with them or you're creating opportunities to just sit and chat with them. Or you're making sure that there's one adult on the campus whose responsibility it is to know how that child is doing weekly, daily, whatever you can get into your regular stream of ways of being with the children. Then you get into informal and formal conferences with students and families. So it goes from affective statements and questions, check-in, check-up, check-out, informal conferences, formal conferences, and then formal. So that's how it operates on a continuum.
Angela Ward:
Like you said, these are things that people are already doing. There's just like more of an intentionality behind it is what I'm hearing. Being real intentional with your structures and your processes, and so what we did with principles, we really looked at on your campus, who are the people who are "responsible" for discipline. Who are the people that are responsible for community building? Who are the people who are responsible for checking in with students and families? So in Austin Independent School District, that can be the counselor, that can be the system principal, that could be your parents support specialist, that could be on some campuses they have restorative practices associates and then on other campuses they have social workers or social-emotional learning coaches or instructional coaches and so you take stock of who are the people on the campus that I can pull together on a regular basis to establish an implementation team. It's that implementation team's job to look at what are the structures we have in place, what are the processes that we have in place, so we don't lose a child.
Ellen Willoughby:
Wow. Yeah. I mean -
Angela Ward:
Period.
Ellen Willoughby:
That's period. So we don't lose a child.
Angela Ward:
Yep.
Ellen Willoughby:
Wow, that's powerful.
Angela Ward:
Because that's someone's loved one, that is someone's important person, and we spend so much time with them, when they're dropping their kids off at our schools, like they become our children and so that is our responsibility.
Angela Ward:
Yeah, and it's important also to see it not as a practice that's only reserved for students of color because of that word justice. It's one reason why we fought that word justice in our title is because schools that have a majority white clientele, they don't want to talk about restorative justice. We don't need that, we don't have bad kids. That's the language.
Ellen Willoughby:
Yeah. Definitely.
Angela Ward:
That's how it's talked about, and every school has students who are operating on the margins. In some way, shape or form, they are ostracized in some way or they're not necessarily accessing the best possible education for them. So we frame it as culturally responsive restorative practices because we want all schools across the city, across the system, to see these practices as relevant for them, relevant for their students, relevant for the families.
Ellen Willoughby:
Again, the verbiage, using that correct language. I mean that's so important because like you said, and I didn't make that connection before but I definitely see that where the use of the word justice, and again, because so many people also believe it started in the criminal justice system that it perpetuates that school to prison pipeline mentality.
Angela Ward:
Yeah, and we're trying to bust that pipeline.
Ellen Willoughby:
Yeah, we need to ... That is the one pipeline we definitely need to get rid of. Absolutely, absolutely. Wow, so much great information. So looking at when we move into tier two, tell me a little bit about those supports for kids.
Angela Ward:
Well they are typical supports. So when I was on a campus as an administrator, tier two was that level in the multi-tiered system of support where you caught most of the children for behavior, for academics, for social skills, and that was the place where we had those so that implementation team, that may just be your ARD committee. It may be your successful interventions team. Whatever that team is that already exists on your campus that meets to talk about how to support children, that's where tier two happens and you have to have fail-safes in place so that someone is always understanding the ways in which every child is accessing their free and accessible public education. Their free and appropriate education. So that tier two is where the important piece is that the school has processes in place to make sure no child is left out of the learning process. That's where adults have conversations about, "Hey, I noticed this. I noticed that this child in particular is having a difficult time at this time of day. Has anyone checked in with them? Has anyone checked in with the family? What's happening?" Those types of questions have to happen and they're not ... I'm trying to say not a double negative, but they're not not restorative practices. Those are restorative practices. Making sure that someone is paying attention when a child is not engaged in the learning community in whatever way that is.
Ellen Willoughby:
Welcome back to part two of Drinking From the Firehose with Dr. Angela Ward, who is talking to us about restorative practices.
Ellen Willoughby:
A lot of times, I have seen it, I have done it, especially when I was beginning my teaching career, of the separation of the academics and the behavior. But [inaudible 00:20:08] exactly and then also seeing that, "Oh. So the challenges of the academics, or the lack of challenge from the academics, are showing up and manifesting in a behavior that we can correct by how we serve the student academically," as opposed to taking kind of the back way around and just thinking that it's a discipline issue.
Angela Ward:
So many children have "difficulty with adults" because the adult just didn't understand and they haven't taken the time to understand. Often we send children down a spiral of behavior that is not conducive to engaging in the school community because they're bored or they are seeking attention. Or the adult is just tired of them and that's human. It's human to get tired -
Ellen Willoughby:
Absolutely.
Angela Ward:
Of children that you're with seven hours a day.
Ellen Willoughby:
Definitely.
Angela Ward:
We've had a bit of a reprieve with our current reality of online schooling and whatnot, yet we're about to go back into face to face with all of our babies and many of them have not been with ... In structured systems for an entire year. So what does that mean for our level of patience as adults coming into this new school year? It's going to require us to give each other space and create opportunities for the adults to be okay. Restorative practices starts with the adult and the adult has to be in an emotional space to give to the students, to receive the student's gifts. If the adult isn't in an emotional space to receive that, they're not going to be able to implement any tiers that are going to be supportive for the students. So we really have to think about what are the structures that we have in place as adults to welcome each other as colleagues into this new school year and then what are the supports we have in place when it gets tough?
Ellen Willoughby:
Because it's going to get tough.
Angela Ward:
It's going to get tougher than it's ever been.
Ellen Willoughby:
Yeah, because there's collective trauma. And I've had discussions with colleagues around this of that and especially like some teachers ... I had a job and I ... I'm one of the lucky ones in that way, but it was still a very ... It was a collective, traumatic event. So thinking about when ... Like you shared the teachers need to ensure, and the school needs to ensure that there is a system of support around teachers and staff so that they can build that level of support around students and families.
Angela Ward:
Absolutely.
Ellen Willoughby:
So thinking about that, what is your thought and what would you recommend?
Angela Ward:
I mean I can only think about what I did with my staff when we were told in a matter of days, "Okay, we're taking work online. We're taking school online." I'm like, "Okay, what does that look like and sound like?" We created opportunities, we had already done so. We met biweekly to check in with each other to have conversations about what's working and what we could improve upon to support students and families on the campus level and staff and we found ways to bring that into our online space. We scheduled check-in meetings, one-on-one with supervisors and campus level people. We set up silly time to do silly things together. The typical things you do to build community, you have to notice when it's time to do that, and you have to notice if you are feeling stressed as the campus leader, imagine how stressed the teachers may be. I mean the campus leader stress is humongous. Humongous. And everyone's going to be feeling this so intensely like we've never experienced it before. So how are we creating those check-in spaces? How are we creating those downtime? Are we giving people the gift of time? Are we meeting for the sake of meeting? We should never be meeting for the sake of meeting. Teacher's jobs are too hard to fill them with meaningless meetings.
Ellen Willoughby:
Absolutely.
Angela Ward:
One thing that I always encourage teachers to do when we're talking about tiers two or three of the restorative process is that when you get to a place where you're just sick of a child because you've dealt with them and you're the only one, because you're human, when you get to the end of that journey and you're like, "I need a break," ask for it. I also invite them to partner with someone. Who's your partner who gives you that space? Who can be there at a moment's notice if need be? Who can be there within 30 minutes?
Angela Ward:
What's the plan in place and one thing that we did when I was on a campus as a leader, we looked at the entire grade level, and we took that grade level as we were planning out where students would be the next year and we looked at if this class made, what would be the daily interaction that this teacher would have to do with all the students on this roster to be successful with each student, and then we would notice where there may be a cluster of students that would require an enormous amount of emotional labor and academic prep and things of that nature. Then we would try to level out those classrooms so that that teacher wouldn't have to have as heavy a load and then we looked at across the grade level are these class lists structured in a way that you would want to teach at principal, you would want to teach at assistant principal, so why are you giving this teacher a class that you don't want to teach because of the emotional labor that's required or the enormous amount of prep time that it's going to take to be successful with this group of students.
Angela Ward:
So that's a practice we put in place to help us make educated decisions about class lists. You can do it at the elementary and the secondary level. Look at that list. You know the children. You know who's showing up in that classroom and if you don't, somebody on the campus knows and you should be asking them, would you want to teach this class, why, why not.
Ellen Willoughby:
Right. What a great lens. I love that.
Angela Ward:
And it really helped teachers to be able to meet the needs of students, and if we couldn't level the class out, we knew, "Okay, we need to ask for support here," before the school year even started. We're trying to get more support for this particular classroom and if we can't, hey, we put our tennis shoes on and we got to that classroom multiple times a day to make sure the teachers got what they needed. So it's looking at the totality of how you set up the school space to make sure that teachers are successful, that students are successful, that when you're setting up the receiving of students at the beginning of the day, sending them off at the end of the day, all of those things go into making restorative practices, a culturally responsive restorative practices process that's going to support the everyday social-emotional well-being of the students and staff and make everyone feel safe, welcome and included.
Ellen Willoughby:
I think of it from the perspective of a teacher of how supported they feel with first of all that the leaders really understand who is in my classroom and that there was such intentionality about it. And again, that idea of like, "Okay, so if your class is a little bit heavier balanced with some students who may have some greater needs, then we're going to find that support for you. So I think that that return on the investment of spending that time is critical to the support of the adults and of course the children and the building.
Angela Ward:
Absolutely. It is and teachers, we would have the conversation with teachers, which class do you not want to teach. We had all the children's names on Post-its or cards or something and coded them for special needs and things of that nature and ways we would have to attend to them and the teachers would say, "I won't teach that class," and we talked through why and make good decisions about how to split them up so that it's more manageable and teachers could actually have a good work-life balance.