Three Keys to A Better School Climate
I have seen nearly all debates about school discipline degrade into a terrible false choice dynamic. Perhaps, in your school, you have students that are struggling with the structure of in-person learning, or with the stress that comes from living with a pandemic for 20 months. Maybe you also have teachers that are overworked, overtired, and on their last nerve. This might mean you have an elevated number of disciplinary referrals, more fights, and maybe even more suspensions.
If you have these things, you probably have two camps of people staking out their territory. One side there are those who call for “Law and Order” demanding that students be taught a lesson and held accountable. On the other side are people who question the need for zero tolerance policies and think that the code of conduct is a bit strict.
These two camps will soon turn to name calling and ad hominem attacks as the actual depth of their arguments is lacking. I propose a different path.
It is true that violations of the code of conduct cannot be ignored. It is also true that many times, the code of conduct is written in an illogical way. And the fact that both statements can be true gets us no closer to helping students in crisis or in making our schools a safer place.
First, let’s begin with traditional discipline. Punitive practices, like school suspension are surprisingly ineffective at solving any issues. They make the guilty student more likely to reoffend, more likely to drop out of school, and more likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system.
The theory behind these policies is that a student who does a bad thing will get punished and then think twice before they do it again. Or, that other students will see what happened to that punished student, and not make the same decision.
The problem here is that this punishment theory assumes students are weighing possible decisions about their actions. That they are composing a cost-benefit analysis before they throw a punch at another student in a fit of anger. We know it doesn’t work this way in human behavior, and even less so for teenagers.
But we also know that absent some strong intervention, student violence can make students feel unsafe, less likely to learn, and more likely to stay home from school when not really ill. Finding a way to respond, disrupt, and prevent violence that does not rely on a punishment system is critical to the well-being of the entire school community.
I suggest a three-part system to address student behaviors, prevent violence, and respond to violations of the code of conduct in a way that makes students less likely to violate again. These three parts involve a system of restorative practices, power-sharing with community partners, and a diagnostic / prescriptive therapeutic response to significant student misbehavior.
In the first part, restorative practices are important in that they do not let anyone “get away” with bad actions, but they also keep them from being defined by them. Restorative practices allow the injured party to be heard, but also to hear from the other party in their own words. These practices can be a mediation between two students, or a circle involving more than 20 individuals. Restorative practices require training and careful attention must be paid to keep everyone safe within the process. The evidence about the effectiveness of restorative practices is powerful and should not be ignored.
In the second part, schools are often seen as a significant power structure in the community. A structure that is akin to law enforcement. This means that many students and their families are reluctant to engage with, confide in, and trust school personnel. Rather than wait for trust to be built between school personnel and community, bring trusted community members into the school.
By conducting a sociogram and finding who the trusted people are within the community, you can invite them to become part of the school community in an informal (volunteer) or formal (employed) manner. By hiring the trusted community members, schools can both demonstrate that there is a commitment to not further punish or unfairly “go after’’ students and gain special knowledge in helping to keep conflicts from happening. Often these community members know when students have beef and that it might spill over into a school environment. They are critical at keeping these situations from becoming violent.
Last, it is important to recognize that over 80% of students who get suspended from school have some form of behavioral health issue and suspension only exacerbates it. Instead, these students need someone to work with them diagnostically to determine what is going on. Once they have had a formal assessment and diagnostic done, a match must be made to an evidence-based treatment. One of the problems is that too often we seek one particular response (suspension) for all manner of problematic student behavior. The reality is that some students need Anger Replacement Training (ART), others might need Teen Intervene, and still others might need Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. There are many evidence-based treatments, and each is appropriate for only some students.
By embracing restorative practices, community partnerships, and diagnostic/prescriptive therapeutic programs, you can significantly reduce student suspensions, dropouts, recidivism, and disciplinary referrals. Schools that have implemented these programs have not only seen incidents of dropping out and suspensions nearly disappear, but the student body, in general, feels the school climate is warmer, safer, and less tense.
Laurence T. Spring Ed.D.
