Teacher Betty Momjian, counselor Pete Babnis and social worker Ben Kauffman discuss school discipline. (Mike Koozmin/The Examiner)
When a student at Civic Center Secondary School swore at a teacher, made threats and punched walls last year, faculty members wanted him gone.
The boy was suspended, but came back to school just as angry, recalled Ben Kauffman, then the school’s social worker. After the boy’s second suspension, school officials decided to try something different.
They asked the boy what was wrong.
“It basically came down to, ‘I feel dumb when I’m in this class,’” said Kauffman, who now works with the district’s student support services department.
After discussing the feelings of everyone involved, school officials moved the boy to a different class. He settled down and has not been suspended since.
That simple approach is part of a major overhaul of the San Francisco Unified School District’s discipline system. School officials said the concept, called “restorative practices,” is helping to reduce suspensions and expulsions.
Restorative practices originated in the criminal justice system in the 1970s and involve bringing perpetrators together with their victims and witnesses to discuss why an offense occurred and what to do about it.
“It’s people talking to each other; that’s all it is,” said Pete Babnis, head counselor at Herbert Hoover Middle School. “This gives voice to the person that’s been hurt as well.”
Last year, the first for the program at the SFUSD, referrals for expulsion were down 35 percent, according to district records. Nonmandatory referrals — those which did not involve a weapon, sexual assault or drug dealing — were down more than 60 percent. Most referrals do not lead to actual expulsion, but they do mean missing weeks of school.
Discussions related to restorative practices lead to an agreement about how to deal with the offense, Babnis said.
Punishment can be as simple as writing a letter of apology or as serious as transferring to a different school.
The boy was suspended, but came back to school just as angry, recalled Ben Kauffman, then the school’s social worker. After the boy’s second suspension, school officials decided to try something different.
They asked the boy what was wrong.
“It basically came down to, ‘I feel dumb when I’m in this class,’” said Kauffman, who now works with the district’s student support services department.
After discussing the feelings of everyone involved, school officials moved the boy to a different class. He settled down and has not been suspended since.
That simple approach is part of a major overhaul of the San Francisco Unified School District’s discipline system. School officials said the concept, called “restorative practices,” is helping to reduce suspensions and expulsions.
Restorative practices originated in the criminal justice system in the 1970s and involve bringing perpetrators together with their victims and witnesses to discuss why an offense occurred and what to do about it.
“It’s people talking to each other; that’s all it is,” said Pete Babnis, head counselor at Herbert Hoover Middle School. “This gives voice to the person that’s been hurt as well.”
Last year, the first for the program at the SFUSD, referrals for expulsion were down 35 percent, according to district records. Nonmandatory referrals — those which did not involve a weapon, sexual assault or drug dealing — were down more than 60 percent. Most referrals do not lead to actual expulsion, but they do mean missing weeks of school.
Discussions related to restorative practices lead to an agreement about how to deal with the offense, Babnis said.
Punishment can be as simple as writing a letter of apology or as serious as transferring to a different school.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/08/san-francisco-schools-work-kids-cut-suspensions-expulsions#ixzz1VnMTXIhj
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