{"id":24386,"date":"2015-05-22T16:06:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T20:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=24386"},"modified":"2015-06-04T16:15:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T20:15:34","slug":"oakland-school-district-youths-are-transformed-by-restorative-justice-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/oakland-school-district-youths-are-transformed-by-restorative-justice-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland school district youths are transformed by restorative justice practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two \u201cFrontier Luncheon\u201d speakers at Session II of the 2015 Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/a> (SPI) did not offer a speech to their audience of 170 people from 29 countries. Instead Fania E. Davis and Cameron Simmons showed a short documentary film, encouraged dining table conversation about it, and invited questions.<\/p>\n

The film featured a young African American man fresh from juvenile detention, entering a last-chance high school in Oakland, California, one of the most violent cities in the United States. His re-entry began with more than a dozen adults (including his mother and stepfather) and a student-peer sitting in a circle and talking, one by one, of how much they cared about him and how they would help him in any way they could. As the participants opened up and expressed their emotions and vulnerabilities, the young man did too. Love and hope filled the space.<\/p>\n

This inspiring story had its roots in a 2005 decision by civil rights attorney Fania E. Davis to co-found Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth<\/a> (RJOY), which she has led ever since. The SPI audience learned at the May 20 luncheon that Cameron Simmons was much like the young man in the film.<\/p>\n

Simmons spoke of being a 4-year-old when he received his first school suspension (for taking back his own candy confiscated by the principal). By age 16, he had been suspended 150 times and had simply given up on school. He was living on the streets, running with a gang, heading to being one of the tens of thousands of African American youth in the \u201cschool to prison pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead Simmons found himself at Bunche High School \u2013 the school featured in the film \u2013 where he spent part of his first day sitting in a \u201ccommunity-building circle\u201d with other African American males, witnessing tears and laughter among guys freely sharing their feelings and thoughts. This circle was one of many types used by the RJOY school coordinator at Bunche, Eric Butler. In another type of circle, Butler may assemble family members, the school principal, guidance counselor, teachers, and any others likely to be regularly interacting with the student. For a conflict among the student population, students would be heavily represented in a circle.<\/p>\n

When Simmons graduated from Bunche one year later, he was an honors student and a school leader, on the cusp of being a leader in his community. His turn-around began when the adults in the school circle \u201cgreeted me with genuine love and care \u00ad\u2013 they made me feel differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can be the best I can be because they are trying to be the best they can be for me,\u201d said Simmons, adding that their honesty and vulnerability were contagious: \u201cPeople gravitate toward the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FaniaDavis-web\"<\/a>
Fania Davis spoke of shifting from being \u201can activist filled with rage\u201d to being someone who loves having the tools of restorative justice to \u201clight candles” in the darkness of an unjust, racist society. (Photo by Michael Sheeler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In founding RJOY, Davis spoke of shifting from being \u201can activist filled with rage\u201d to being someone who loves having the tools of restorative justice to \u201clight candles\u201d in the darkness of an unjust, racist society. In a February 2014 article<\/a> in Yes! <\/em>magazine, Davis explained:<\/p>\n

The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the alarming national trend of punishing and criminalizing our youth instead of educating and nurturing them. Exclusionary discipline policies such as suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly being used to address even the most minor infractions: a 5-year-old girl\u2019s temper tantrum, a child doodling on her desk with erasable ink, or adolescent students having a milk fight in the cafeteria. Use of suspensions has almost doubled since the 1970\u2019s\u2026 [B]lack students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts for comparable offenses.<\/em><\/p>\n

The heartening news, said Davis at the Frontier Luncheon, is that recently published research shows amazing results for schools that take a restorative justice, rather than a punitive, approach to non-compliant or under-performing students. Researchers found the following in the Oakland United School District:<\/p>\n