The issue of inequities in school discipline has persisted for decades, particularly affecting poor, minority, and disabled students who often face suspensions and expulsions at rates significantly higher than their peers. This disparity has created a pathway for many of these students towards the criminal justice system rather than a proper education.
At San Diego Unified School District, this trend has been evident, with Black students historically four times more likely than White students to face suspension or police detention.
Addressing these deep-rooted inequities has proven challenging. In the mid-2000s, a fresh perspective on school discipline emerged known as restorative justice, which emphasizes repairing harm rather than administering punitive measures.
In 2020, the San Diego Unified board adopted its first restorative justice policy aimed at transforming these disciplinary practices. While the initiative was launched with admirable goals in mind, its results have been mixed. Although there has been a drop in overall discipline rates, there are concerns over inconsistent implementation across the district and a perception that these policies may lead to a lack of accountability.
Recently, San Diego Unified officials approved a new policy intended to fill the gaps that previously hindered successful implementation. As this newly polished policy gains traction, it is juxtaposed with funding cuts that threaten the positions of key individuals responsible for promoting restorative justice in schools.
Firstly, it is important to note that San Diego Unified identified itself as a restorative justice district in 2014; however, meaningful actions were slow to follow. In 2017, the district established a department dedicated to integrating restorative practices into its operations. The movement gained momentum following nationwide protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd in 2020, leading to the approval of a restorative justice policy that year.
Research has consistently shown that punitive disciplinary actions like suspensions and expulsions can exacerbate student behavioral issues. Conversely, restorative justice methods foster positive outcomes, benefiting student conduct, reducing suspension and expulsion rates, and even decreasing arrest rates.
Restorative justice focuses on dialogue as a response to misbehavior and aims to forge healthy, supportive communities to deter negative behavior.
Ebonee Weathers, who serves as the director of equity and belonging for San Diego Unified, emphasized the importance of building a sense of belonging and community. “It’s really about prevention through belonging, building those communities where our students want to be and where they feel invested in taking care of one another and themselves,” Weathers stated.
Despite the promising aspects of restorative justice, it has not been without challenges. Implementing sweeping initiatives such as this one effectively is crucial, as poor implementation can even escalate classroom violence. California’s approach to restorative justice has yielded mixed results, mirroring the complexity of the issue at hand.
The 2020 restorative justice policy aimed to eradicate racist disciplinary practices by openly acknowledging and dismantling systems that foster racism. It introduced a structured response matrix to guide teachers and administrators in managing various levels of student misconduct while emphasizing the importance of maintaining students in class rather than resorting to suspensions and expulsions.
Crucially, the policy encouraged administrators to explore all available interventions before considering suspension as an option. Additionally, the district committed to providing more frequent training on restorative practices for faculty and staff.
Renee Thomas, a teacher from Marston Middle School within the San Diego Unified District, was introduced to restorative justice through these trainings. Initially skeptical, Thomas’s perspective shifted after a single training session.
“Restorative justice has so much potential,” she said. “It creates community in the classroom. It creates community on campus.”
Over time, she has integrated restorative practices into her teaching, significantly transforming her classroom environment. These approaches have fostered trust and respect among her students and diminished repeat behavioral issues.
Weathers underscored that misconceptions about restorative justice often lead to misunderstandings, such as the belief that it diminishes student accountability. “Restorative practices are not a removal of consequences but really an effort to focus consequences on accountability and community, ensuring that students are safe while learning the tools to prevent repeating behaviors,” she explained.
Subsequent years have witnessed a decline in suspension and expulsion rates, indicating some positive traction from the new policy. However, the challenges persist, as Black students remain nearly four times more likely to face suspension compared to their White peers. Reports highlighted that the rates of suspension for Black students with disabilities were so disproportionate in the 2022 school year that the California Department of Education placed the district under monitoring.
Despite some positive feedback regarding the initiative, it has sparked controversy within the community. Many parents express concern that the new approach may lead to a lack of consequences for misbehavior, potentially aggravating disciplinary issues.
The San Diego Unified board has recently approved a new policy intending to simplify the language and provide teachers with a broader array of tools to address disciplinary issues effectively. This new policy is substantial, almost doubling the length of the previous one, and features an extensive library of additional resources for educators.
The shifts in the policy reflect feedback from stakeholders and emphasize a progressive discipline model, where responses to misconduct escalate based on the behavior’s severity and frequency.
For example, the revised policy categorizes infractions by severity. Minor issues like academic dishonesty may only result in classroom interventions, such as journaling or role-playing, while serious offenses could lead to expulsion after a repeat offense.
During a recent board meeting, Board President Cody Petterson addressed the previous policy’s shortcomings, which left administrators uncertain about how to handle repeated behavioral issues effectively. “We would see it in closed session where you would have five years of the same behavior, and parents are frustrated, other students are frustrated,” he said, noting the need for clear guidance.
Despite improvements in the policy framework, funding cuts loom large over the restorative justice initiative. For the 2024-25 school year, San Diego Unified has budgeted $1,484,940 for restorative justice, a significant drop from the previous allocation of $904,569.
The reduction includes the elimination of funding for influential roles designated as restorative community leads who have been instrumental in implementing restorative justice practices at middle schools, where these positions involved dedicating two periods each day to restorative work. Likewise, at high schools, community leads were allocated one period daily.
As budget constraints force the district to eliminate this funding for the upcoming year, many schools are left to manage utilizing discretionary funds, a challenge for numerous institutions. This situation is particularly concerning for Marston Middle, where Thomas served as a restorative community lead.
Thomas contends that without such positions, the restorative justice program is at risk of losing its potential. “In order for the program to perform at its potential, we need those positions,” she asserted. “I think it’s just not fully understanding what the impact of those roles are.”
While the newly revised policy features extensive definitions of behaviors and corresponding interventions, there is concern that teachers may struggle to effectively implement it without designated site leads.
Weathers, however, believes that the extensive staff training in restorative policies will mitigate some of these concerns, and the refinements made to the policy will facilitate a positive implementation process. “I think it’s going to make for a really smooth implementation process, as opposed to just sort of dropping a really long, convoluted document onto a group of people,” Weathers remarked.
Yet, Kyle Weinberg, president of the teachers’ union representing San Diego Unified educators, expressed alarm over the funding cuts, indicating that the lack of dedicated positions may lead to piecemeal implementation of the restorative justice approach.
Weinberg asserted that while the union advocates for restorative justice, the elimination of key positions renders effective implementation increasingly challenging. “We are going back to what it was before the pandemic, when we said we were a restorative district but we were not putting the resources in place to be able to do that effectively,” he commented. “At the majority of schools, the capacity isn’t there to do more with less.”
image source from：voiceofsandiego
