Restorative Justice in Schools

Does "restorative justice" work to reduce discipline issues or is it simply another neoliberal progressive "equity" program that hides disciplinary issues?

Yesterday I made the comment that the neoliberal left redefines words and phrases to protect them from considering the negative moral consequences of their actions. Words like “abortion”, a medical procedure which inarguably ends a human life, is deleted and replaced with the phrase “reproductive healthcare” to fool the neoliberal mind into believing they support something good and necessary.

Who could argue with providing healthcare during the reproductive cycle, right?

That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Except that statistically, today most abortions are not medical necessities at all, they are elective, even most late term abortions are through choice, not any medical or physical danger to the mother. Whether you support or oppose the procedure, abortion is neither supportive of reproduction nor is it healthcare because it terminates the reproductive process and the procedure creates health and mental health risks.

Unfortunately, the process of changing the language to hide failure or an agenda is all too common.

People use words like equity and justice, words that sound positive, but when applied according to the neoliberal philosophy produce things diametrically opposed to the intended meaning.

Take equity for example. We have just witnessed cases in school systems where “equity” meant withholding notifications from students and their parents that they had achieved National Merit honors, something to which colleges and universities attach value as they assess admission. Allegedly, the schools did this in service to their definition of “equity”, which was not raising other students to this level – rather it was simply hiding the excellence of a few students to avoid hurting the feelings of other, lower performing students.

I think there is another reason.

I think it is that there is some much pressure on teachers and schools systems to deliver equal outcomes, these particular school systems decided having a few high performing students would make them look bad in the eyes of their collectivist peers.

Since we are on the subject of what the neoliberal ideology is doing to schools, there is another neoliberal idea that sounds good in theory, but in practice isn’t all it is cracked up to be. In a case very similar to the National Merit blackout, the real results of it is being hidden from parents.

It is something called “restorative justice” and it has been gaining steam within the schools for over a decade in response to an alleged disproportionate rate of disciplinary actions (suspensions) handed out black students.

The term “restorative justice” refers to "an approach to justice that seeks to repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime."

Of course, from a school perspective, we aren’t talking about crimes but violations of schools policies and ruled. Jeremy Adams, a teacher at both the high school and college levels with frontline experience, in an article adapted from his new book, Hollowed Out: A Warning About America’s Next Generation, defines restorative justice policies in schools as “a non-punitive approach to discipline wherein issues are supposed to be addressed ‘inside the school,’ not with suspensions.”

But does restorative justice in schools work?

It would seem by now that we would have enough data to know.

We do, and the news isn’t good.

In 2019, the Manhattan Institute did a deep dive into both large scale studies by entities like the RAND Corporation and smaller studies conducted within school systems and found:

“The most troubling thing: There were significant and substantial negative effects on math achievement for middle school students, black students, and students in schools that are predominantly black…

Restorative justice is frequently presented to teachers as “evidence-based” and on the cutting edge of “social justice” as something that works if they embrace it. Man’s capacity for self-deception cannot be discounted, and if teachers think they’re doing better even as students think things are getting worse, that would be consistent with the policy drama that has played out writ large over the last two years: In the face of increasingly overwhelming negative evidence, social justice education reformers have only grown more vociferous in their insistence that discipline reform works. 

Right now, the tally of studies on the academic effects of discipline reform on school districts are three negative (Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Philadelphia) and one null/positive (Chicago). In terms of student surveys, my tally has four negative (NYC, Los Angeles, Washoe County, Seattle) and one negative/positive (Chicago). When it comes to local teacher surveys, I’ve seen eleven negative (Oklahoma City, Baton Rouge, Portland, Jackson, Denver, Syracuse, Santa Ana, Hillsborough, Madison, Charleston, Buffalo) and one positive (Pittsburgh).”

The fact is student behavior is still  driving educators out of the classroom, and as the Manhattan Institute discovered, “restorative justice” policies are unfortunately doing more harm than good - to both teachers and students.

Reported suspension rates may appear down for a given school or district, but it’s “not because students are behaving any better,” according to Adams.

“It’s not because intimate classroom chats have made challenging students see the error of their ways or because they have subdued their rowdier inclinations. No, it is because teachers are forced to endure whatever students brazenly and flagrantly throw at them (sometimes literally).”

It seems clear the pressure is on teachers to eschew consequences for bad behavior in favor of relaxed discipline policies that produce desired statistical results. Classroom disorder and violence go unchecked, and effective education is undermined. Not only are these policies undermining teachers’ authority in the classroom and their ability to teach, but they actually end up harming the very students they are meant to help and their peers who are trying to learn, continues Adams.

“[T]he predictable albeit unintended consequence of these well-meaning policies is that disruptive students get away with previously unacceptable behavior. Outbursts of student vulgarity and violence have become normalized as things that teachers and other students have to endure.”

Catrin Wigfall, writing at the American Experiment, says:

“Countless teachers have recounted disturbing instances of being assaulted by their students or needing to remove their entire class because of one student throwing desks or trying to stab classmates with pencils and scissors. Yet many teachers don’t report these incidents out of fear of retaliation and threats of termination or suspension. They find their hands are tied as school leadership pushes to lower suspension rates, and when teachers do reach out and seek support from administrators and union representatives on behavior issues, it is often lacking.”

Long story short, “restorative justice” in the neoliberal lexicon is the same as “equity”, the focus is on equality of outcomes (in this case, equalizing the number of suspensions regardless of the offense) rather than enforcing effective policies.

If your schools are using this term, the hairs on the back of your neck should be standing up – and for good reason – restorative justice is just another in a litany of “social justice” ideas that simply do not work.