Restorative Justice Has No Place in Schools
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that restorative justice, while appropriate in other contexts, interferes with the educational mission when applied to school discipline.
Key Takeaways
- School is not a courtroom - Restorative justice was designed for the criminal justice system, not for K-12 schools
- It interferes with education - The time and process required for restorative circles takes away from instruction
- Schools need discipline, not justice processes - Quick, consistent consequences are more appropriate for school settings than elaborate restorative procedures
Transcript
So the founder of the National Center for Restorative Justice reached out about being on my podcast, and my podcast is about books, so it wasn't a good fit, but I also think he wasn't aware of my stance on restorative justice, which is that it does not belong in schools.
But let me talk about why I think restorative justice has a place in society, just not in schools.
If someone has gotten out of prison, I think it makes total sense for them to have an opportunity, if the victims are willing, for them to sit down with the victims and kind of make things right and be able to move forward, forgive and apologize and all that.
I think there are some healthy things that can happen there if everybody agrees to put the time into that and to, you know, to go along with that process.
I think that can be a good thing.
In schools, though, we have a completely different mission, a completely different obligation to our students.
And, like, we're here to teach.
We are not here to run relationship restoring circles.
On one level, time is a big deal.
Anytime two kids have an argument with one another, we're supposed to stop the lesson and have a circle and spend class time so that they can work it out.
On a time use basis, this seems a little bit strange to me.
But I think the bigger problem comes in terms of consequences and power, right?
Like if you hurt somebody else, you can get away with it by apologizing correctly in front of everybody.
Like kids are very savvy.
Kids are quick to catch on to what adults want to hear.
And some kids will not tell us what we want to hear, but some will.
And they will realize that they have values.
vastly more power over everybody else if they get good at telling us what we want to hear.
So as long as I'm willing to sit in a circle and say the right things afterward, I can get away with any kind of behavior.
The other piece we've got to consider here is what situation are we putting the victim of that behavior in by creating this circle, creating all this social pressure to accept the apology, to be okay with the behavior that was not okay.
This is not organizationally how we need to respond to inappropriate behavior.
This is not how we protect our students, how we protect our learning environment.
We do that with boundaries.
We do that with consequences.
And a boundary is not real if all you have to do for breaking it is apologize, right?
Talk is real cheap.
Talk is real cheap when you've hurt somebody else and not having a consequence that actually interrupts that behavior and says, no, you actually cannot do that and continue to be here.
is much more powerful.
Like we need that consequence to put that boundary in place and to protect people.
So not a fan of restorative justice in schools.
There are lots of reasons.
I think it was a nice idea.
I think the idea of repairing relationships is a good one.
but the reality is that is not really our job as educators our job as educators is to teach and to create an environment where kids are safe it's not to help them be friends it's not to help them make amends it is to help them learn in a safe environment let me know what you think