Restoring Justice: Reimagining School Discipline After the COVID-19 Era By Jesse Bulluck

During the spring of 2020, schools found themselves faced with one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century—a worldwide pandemic.  As students were sent home to finish the academic year in a completely remote environment, school officials had to quickly adjust to instructional limitations caused by the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.  While immediate attention was placed on how to teach students through virtual means, teachers soon discovered that they would have to face additional challenges as well (Heim & Strauss, 2020; Jones, 2020).

Prior to the pandemic, student conduct was an issue that all school personnel were bound to address at some point.  Disruptions due to inappropriate student behavior can have a negative impact on the learning process (Oliver et al., 2011; Goldstein & Brooks, 2007).  Moreover, if student behavior is a large problem within a school, this may move beyond the classroom and cause significant instabilities within the overall school climate (Aldrup et al., 2018).

Although students found themselves attending school while being in the comforts of their own home, they soon had to understand that this did not give them a pass to behave however they wished.  Here, the challenge for schools was how to balance maintaining order while also giving students leeway for the special circumstances presented by the pandemic.  Unfortunately, the learning curve for this issue was steep and schools attempted to operate like normal; however, there was nothing normal about the situation.  As such, students and their parents found themselves managing disciplinary issues during one of the most stressful times in their academic journey (Loewenberg, 2020).

The disparities that existed within school discipline were evident even before the pandemic.  Since the 1990s, schools have operated under the idea that they must take a zero-tolerance approach towards unwanted negative student behavior.  This approach, itself, is an offshoot of the “tough-on-crime” strategy that was implored within the criminal justice system during the 1980s increase in the use of illegal drugs (Boggess & Bound, 1997).  Both strategies have a heavy reliance on the theory that harsher punishments will discourage certain behaviors (Piquero et al., 2011). The intent behind such policies may have been to decrease bad behavior, but the result over the last two decades, particularly within schools, has been an increasingly criminalization of student behavior, most of which is minor and not damaging (Hirschfield, 2008).  For decades, mostly Black and Brown students and students with disabilities received the majority of the punishments from schools (Camera, 2020).  Research shows that there is a direct link between school disciplinary issues due to zero-tolerance policies, and future contacts with the juvenile justice and the criminal justice systems (Monahan et al., 2014; Cuellar & Markowitz, 2015). 

School districts that have turned to restorative justice as an alternative approach to discipline have noticed remarkable changes within their school environment (Fronius et al, 2016).  Restorative justice is the idea that teachers and school administrators can use alternative approaches to discipline instead of using punitive punishments when undesirable behavior occurs (González, 2015).  Greater emphasis is placed on the student being a member of the larger community and their negative behavior being viewed as something the community as a whole can correct (Karp & Breslin, 2001).  This approach removes the notion that the individual student is a problem, but instead allows them to have an opportunity to restore their good standing within the community.  In repairing the harm their actions caused, the student learns what behavior is appropriate.  More importantly, under a restorative justice framework, the student learns that they are a valued member of the community and they will always have a supportive network to become the best individual they can be.  With restorative justice in schools, students are learning to resolve conflicts on their own, which leads to better social skills; there are noticeable improvements in socialization, which decreases occurrences of bullying; and schools are seeing lower levels of suspensions and expulsions (Davis, 2013).  The positive benefits of schools using this alternative approach to discipline outweigh the continued use of punitive punishments, which are detrimental to students, to schools, and to communities. 

Student disciplinary policies and student conduct procedures will continue to be an issue that school officials will have to consider.  The time during the pandemic has highlighted many of the disparities that already existed within the school setting, especially with the treatment of certain populations of students.  One potential positive to come out of the time students have spent in their remote-learning environments was the decrease in the percentage of students receiving harsh punishments (i.e., suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests).  Even with the decrease, however, there is still a great concern that historically marginalized students are now disciplined in other ways that still have a disparate impact (Jones, 2020). 

For instance, one 9-year-old student was suspended for multiple days for having a BB gun on camera while he was taking an exam.  The young student placed the BB gun in the chair beside him because a younger sibling, with whom he shares the bedroom, accidentally tripped over it while walking into the room.  This particular case was alarming because the school initially wanted to expel the student and only lowered it to a suspension once it was determined that it was a BB gun.  In addition to the suspension, the family had to undergo a social work evaluation as well (Crespo, 2020).  With the knowledge that students of color are routinely punished more harshly than their counterparts, one has to wonder if this young student would have been suspended if he were white?   

Resolving the current issues surrounding student discipline policies and student conduct procedures is a monumental task, especially since schools are now mostly focused on reacclimating students to the brick-and-mortar school building in the upcoming school year.  Nonetheless, it is a great time for schools to not only reset themselves academically, but to also take advantage of the time they have had to view discipline in a new way.  Restorative justice offers an opportunity to move further away from the punitive practices of the past and closer to an ideal that is fair, equitable, and more inclusive of all students.

References

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