I think that restorative justice has its place in schools. So does zero tolerance. Restorative justice has its place when maybe a kid was being called a name or bullied. The bully and the kid can sit down with a teacher and teach the bully what he did was wrong. How zero tolerance has its place in schools is punishing the bully. The punishment can be on how bad the bullying was or how many times it has happened before. If it keeps up, then the restorative justice probably should not be used, and they should be using higher forms of punishment to stop the bullying. I think that restorative justice and zero tolerance need to work hand in hand for a more successful program. The story of the lady that was kicked out of school has a lot of things going on in that story. It is sad that she turned away from school and joined the gangs and had terrible things happen to her. Her first time getting kicked out of school for drawing a line on the board seems off to me. If that was the only thing that she did and had no prior infractions, I agree that kicking her out of class is too harsh of a punishment for that infraction. If that is not true and she acted out more than that or she was a trouble maker that would make sense. The fact that she got arrested and she never told us what she did wrong does seem suspicious to me. She also talked about zero tolerance and the lady. The fact that she had multiple expulsions and suspensions appears as though she was a trouble maker and that is not zero tolerance because they kept letting her back. Sitting down and talking about feelings is all and well and it probably works in some situations, but not all cases and I believe that the best solution is for them to work hand in hand. -Legion001
I agree with you that restorative justice and zero tolerance both have their place. Implementing both can be very effective in these schools, but it can also be very controversial. You would have to draw a line somewhere, and whether you like it or not, not everybody is going to agree with your decisions. I would just do what is best statistically and let criticism go. -lilbaby001
I agree with the point that after some time restorative justice should not be used. I never had thought of the other side of zero tolerance and how it was actually implemented to stop bullying and harassment. I also agree that talking things out has its time and place but is not effective in every solution. Jackrabbit001
I agree with your argument that zero tolerance and restorative justice should work hand in hand. Restorative justice is more beneficial for the offender so sometimes restorative justice just doesn't work for the intensity of the crime of rule broken and that is when zero tolerance kicks in. -Drums001
Restorative justice is definitely an interesting topic especially in the realm of schools and how it correlates to the prisons. This lady brings up some interesting points about how zero policies affect prisoners and it makes perfect sense. Once a child in a school gets in trouble with a zero policy rule, they will automatically think that they are a bad kid and just continue to get trouble because they think that they are just a lost cause. This is where she talks about how restorative justice comes in. If we eliminate the zero policy rules in schools, it is proven by statistics that trouble in schools decrease. This is especially sad to the inmates that are in prison now due to the fact that they got in trouble with a zero policy rule back when people didn’t think about restorative justice. Granted, they are offenders and they did their crime and serve their time. Some people may think that there should be a mitigating factor due to this, but I do not think so. They should have some type of psychologist when they’re in prison, like this lady. She has helped many prisoners and that is what we think we need in our system. -lilbaby001
There are some things that need to be zero tolerance issues. I think that if we make zero tolerance and restorative justice policies together it would work better than just one or the other. I agree that going to a zero tolerance school should not be a mitigating factor because that does not make sense. -Legion001
I also think it was interesting that they introduced restorative justice in schools. It seemed that with the zero tolerance policy they punished students with very harsh punishments. Restorative justice is proven to be a better alternative then zero tolerance. Although it is better it doesn't mean that they should get rid of zero tolerance altogether, but instead rework it. -Ram001
This video was very interesting. As I had been watching I believed this video to be related to mandatory minimums in due to the fact it had mentioned zero tolerance in relation to a one-strike rule. I do not believe that we should completely abandon a zero tolerance policy but instead revise it. I believe this because I don't believe restorative justice would be full proof. I really believe it can work in many situations but everyone must buy into it. If only half the staff and students buy in it won't work at all. I believe that restorative justice can turn into a "say you're sorry," type of situation if no one buys in. I completely stand behind the idea of communicating your emotions and working through your problems but I don't feel like that would work in every situation. I do agree with the point that with a strict zero-tolerance policy many students are given up on and that is a huge problem with the "pipeline from school to prison." Zero tolerance to me is reminiscent of the tough on crime aspect of the criminal justice system. Jackrabbit001
The video had an interesting start with how Laila mentions that there are zero tolerance policies in her school. The school's intentions were good in the sense that they wanted their students to behave better. However I do not agree with the punishments they would give for minor infractions. Their zero tolerance policies are very similar to get tough on crime laws due to the harsh punishments given to students for small offenses. Later on they introduce restorative justice to replace the zero-tolerance policy. It is proven to have better results. In my opinion I do feel that the restorative justice would be more effective than zero tolerance. Although it can be efficient in schools, it may be difficult to bring restorative justice because students may not want to open up about how they felt during a conflict. However this does not mean that we should just get rid of the zero tolerance policy. These policies should be for more serious offenses. Laila later talks about how she saw kindergarten students confronting people who hurt them and tell them how they feel. I agree with her when she said that if kids learn about these things at a young age that it will help them with interactions they have later on in life. It is interesting that they are introducing ideas related to the criminal justice system into schools. I think it can have a positive impact on the students. -Ram001
i completely agree with you. with zero tolerance comes harsher punishments for minor infractions. A child often wont understand that the school is looking for order and better behavior, instead they feel targeted and unwanted. of course there need to be strict rules for more serious infractions such as fighting. however, i don't think zero tolerance is the best thing to introduce to a kid. SexyinBikini 001
She had a lot of interesting things to say. I was in a pretty strict school my whole life and I experienced a little of what she described. When in trouble, it felt like I was the scum of the Earth just for my hair being too long. Administrators at schools often look more for stability and balance rather than trying to help a child through their problems. This often results in the child feeling targeted and excluded which could cause serious problems for the development of his or her mind in the long run. From a young age, children in a “zero tolerance” environment will be exposed to harsh and seemingly unfair punishment. This however is not to say that zero tolerance has no place in schools. However, it can portray that the world is against them and a sense of not belonging. When someone feels that they don’t belong, they feel inadequate leading to vulnerability. When feeling vulnerable people look to the next closest thing that could offer them a sense of security. Sadly, in most cases, that sense of security is either found in a drug, or a gang. However, through restorative justice, youth can express how they feel to one another and don’t feel as excluded. Students can feel safer talking to teachers about how they are being bullied, or what their home life is like. With restorative justice, schools offer a place of not only education, but a sense of security and belonging. Hopefully this will help prevent youth from turning to gangs and crime. sexy_in 001
I agree that implementing a zero tolerance policy in schools can really mess up a kid’s mind. They will soon make the assumption that they cannot mess up and if they do there will be a huge punishment for it. This isn’t good because kids need to be kids, because this is how we learn. If we don’t make mistakes as a kid then we will never truly know what is right and what is wrong. -Celtics001
This Ted Talk talks about restorative justice and how its good for the United States. She talks about when she was in school and got suspended because she wore a zip up jacket that didn’t show her school letters. Her school had a zero tolerance policy that meant regardless of the offense the police would be called or the child would be suspended. She then shows the data of schools that went to a restorative justice policy instead of the zero tolerance policy and how they improved. One school said that implementing the policy for four years led to an 87% decrease in suspensions and the expulsion rate dropped to 0. I think that this data is very misleading, because if the policy before was to suspend or expel kids for almost all offenses, then of course taking away the policy will lead to a decrease in suspensions. Instead I would like to see if the offenses went up or down, because that is really the end goal for the schools. Regardless of this, I am a big supporter of restorative justice because it has been proven to work. Why put away a bunch of non-violent criminals that have an addiction, when we could help fix their addiction and get them on track for a better life? I think that if we used more restorative justice then our prison population would decrease and the reoffending rate would go down as well. -Celtics001
It is interesting, the idea you brought up about offenses being committed rather than expulsion rates going down. Because, like you said of course if we no longer have the zero tolerance policy, the expulsions will decrease. But, does that mean less of those offenses are being committed? Or are they just being less harshly punished?-psyh001
I agree with your thought of the study to be misleading because who knows of the offences committed that year, let alone if they are suspend-able offences. I am curious if they just looked at the problems that occured compared to the previous years or if they looked at the solutions to the problems. -Lobster001
Zero tolerance policies in schools started off as a positive. They were implemented to prevent drugs, weapons, and other dangerous things from being brought into our schools. As expressed in this Ted Talk though, zero tolerance policies turned into something used as a fear tactic for even the smallest infractions. The example given in our video clip was a young girl in elementary school being punished as a cheater or a bully should for simply wearing the wrong kind of jacket one day. To counter these harsh ways, many people suggest restorative justice. Restorative justice being used from a young age can condition children to express themselves in healthy, productive ways rather than making them so fearful of punishment and failure that they get so overwhelmed, they end up becoming people that resort to fighting, and overall misbehaving which can ultimately up their chances of getting into legal trouble once they're older. Laila Faukhry, the Ted Talk speaker on restorative justice addressed the, "widening school to prison pipeline," which is alarming. After working in both schools, and prisons Laila has personally seen the links between the destruction caused by zero tolerance policies in schools, and those who end up in prison. Like miss Laila, I am too an aspiring psychology major, even more specifically a forensic psychology major. Things like restorative justice resonate so well with me because it is spoken in my kind of language. This Ted Talk was well worth the watch, and really touches on some interesting topics.-psych001
You are right about how zero tolerance had started out as positive idea but soon became the whole scare tactic across the nation. I think the fear that this is instilling in young children is affecting them very negativity even if we don't notice it now and will lead to a future of problems all stemming from being punished too severely. -Blues001
I agree with everything that you stated in your blog. I liked how you first started off your blog by explaining that zero tolerance was supposed to be used as a positive thing, but then it ended up going too far and in the completely wrong direction. Instead of helping children and students, it actually caused more harm than good. -Anchorman001
I think eliminating zero tolerance in some certain aspects of school would be a good idea but it would need to remain for some of the more dangerous infractions for the safety of others. The speaker brought up a vast amount of ideas of how this could not only impact children's lives early in life but it could also impact the prisons across America. The aspect of restorative justice giving children a life skill to be able to handle their emotions in a positive way could drastically improve their lives in the future. A kid not knowing how to express their feelings in a positive manner can result in much bigger issues when life gets very hard and cause them to potentially commit violent crimes. For a psychologist like this woman to go into a prison and learn so much about these individuals who have been dug into a hole based off of zero tolerance was very smart. She learned so much from them and early on issues in life and that reinforces her reasoning to implement restorative justice in our school systems. The statistics are there and prove how much of a change this would make in a child's life and also the school system as a whole. I believe this would be something very positive to start pushing for in schools across America and see how big of a change this would create. -Blues001
I definitely agree that the zero tolerance policy is necessary for some offenses such as bullying, drugs, weapons, etc. This policy would be best suited for keeping the rest of the students safe while guiding the offender away from the bad habits. It is also important, however to not punish small offenses too harshly because then those students will feel singled out for something that should not be as big of a deal. -Reid001
Zero tolerance is a good thing for serious offenses, like bringing a weapon to school. Schools should have, and do have, a zero tolerance for this which has been crucial children’s safety. This makes sense and I’m pretty sure everyone would agree with a zero tolerance policy for weapons in schools, but it should not be handed out for every policy. Restorative justice is beneficial where zero tolerance isn’t. First of all, restorative justice is simply fair. It allows the offender to understand what they did wrong, why they received the punishment they got, and why they should not do it again. Secondly, restorative justice allows the victim to express their feelings towards the act the offender committed which, in turn, allows the offender to understand perspective and also teaches the victim to have self esteem and to express their feelings, reducing the possibility of future conflicts. The benefits of restorative justice don’t stop with school; they would also be beneficial if implemented into the criminal justice system. Restorative justice enhances human rights and rehabilitation which would reduce the amount of repeat offenders and would do a better job of humanized offenders, allowing them to have a smoother transition back into the world when they leave prison. Drums001
Zero tolerance was started to make sure that students were not going to be bringing drugs and weapons to school. In my opinion, for this very purpose the zero tolerance rule was great, but the fact that teachers and ministration now use zero tolerance for little things such as suspending a student for wearing a zip up sweatshirt over the school uniform which did not have the school’s logo on it is a big harsh and will not benefit the student whatsoever. Also in the video it stated that students would get in trouble and even suspended for things such as falling asleep in class by accident or sharing food at lunch time. If this were to be the case for the school that I went too, I would have been in trouble every day at lunch because I always shared my food with my friends and they would do the same with me. The fact that they are starting do do something about the harsh situation using restorative justice, which seeks to encourage accountability, repair harm, and restore relationships. During the video Laila said that when she was in school, if the administration would have switched from zero tolerance to restorative justice, the administration would have seen three different improvements take place. One would be a rise in positive student interactions. The second one was a drop in disciplinary problems, and the third one was a narrower school to prison pipeline. During the video she explained how well the system of restorative justice works on training students to better themselves. One thing that stood out to me was that when she was talking about all the goods of restorative justice and how it can help in many situations, she made the statement that restorative justice is not always the right system for every single situation. Restorative justice allows the students to learn about each others feelings and teaches students how to communicate properly without feeling the need to have to use violence to make a point. One thing that really stood out to me in this video was when Laila said that in schools that use zero tolerance, the word bad kid and zero tolerance are now affiliated and the student will believe that he or she is truly not a good person. This means that zero tolerance will actually do more harm than good and that individual who is now known as a bad kid will believe they are bad and most likely continue to head down the wrong path in life and cause more problematic issues at school and anywhere else they go. Restorative justice does not do that to any individual. Restorative justice allows second chances and does not consider a child to be a bad person for one wrong mistake. -Anchorman001
Restorative justice seems like it could work in a lot of different situations, especially with younger children. Like miss Fakhoury says in her presentation many of the children in the kindergarten class seem to be able to communicate better than some adults because they were given the opportunity to learn the skill at a young age. They are learning to talk about their problems and find a solution to them, with the help of their peers. Instead of current zero tolerance policies restorative justice could be used to help people put their differences aside and understand another person’s perspective by communicating with them effectively and efficiently. Over all restorative justice could offer a much more productive method of teaching young people right from wrong, simply by communicating with each other, as opposed to punishing a child for a mistake we all could have easily made when we were young. We are human we make mistakes if there is no room for forgiveness in that regard then many people will continue to be pushed down a rout they don't need to go down and not only they, but we as a society will suffer in the end. -Waterboy001
I agree with how you said society will suffer in the end if we push people down a route they don't need to go down. It kind of seems like society is the one creating all the "bad" people that end up in jail and then say we need to be careful from them. taco001
Laila Fakhoury talks about how the zero tolerance rules that are set in place in schools do more harm than good because they show students that once they mess up, the school is giving up on them rather than helping them figure out why they are acting the way they are and how to fix the problem. Laila suggests replacing zero tolerance with restorative justice because then the students have a chance to talk the problem out and fix it, breaking the cycle of bad behavior. Many schools are making the switch and the numbers are proving this method is much more effective. The number of suspensions in one middle school dropped 87% and the expulsions dropped to 0. More schools need to put these methods in place because students are in the formative years of their lives, so if their behavior is fixed, they will grow up to be crime-free adults. Laila volunteers at a prison 6 out of 7 days of the week, so she has become very close with some of the inmates. One person she became close with is Lolita. Lolita was arrested when she was 16 and is still in prison at the age of 40. When asked why she thought she was the way she was, she immediately recalled when she was rejected from the school play in kindergarten and she has been rejected many times since then too. She had a rough childhood and rather than having someone be there for her, she was punished for the way she was acting even though her behavior was obviously a cry for help. Schools need to pay attention to the actions and behavior of children because they can be helped at a young age, but once they become adults and these behaviors become habits, it becomes a lot harder to reform them. -Reid001
The topic of Restorative Justice is very interesting. In this Ted Talk I was intrigued with the mention of a belief for a school to prison pipeline. Such a thought is interesting to me because I never really saw a link until this Ted Talk. The woman discusses from early signs involving the Zero-Tolerance Policy, the view that kids see themselves and this belief they build and hold is what directs them in life. Their idea of being labeled a bad kid has them thinking for the rest of their life that they are bad and it creates the tendency for them to act out and try to be a bad kid. Restorative Justice is interesting because of how it works. The action of rehabilitating inmates through reconciles between them and the community is a great idea because it may help those with mental thoughts of them being labeled to forget the labels and move past it. Restorative Justice as said by the woman is even being used for the youngest generations, in one kindergarten class, children were exposed to this method and were shown to stand up to the bullies not only in their grade level but classes ahead of them as well. Personally I think Restorative Justice should be used first hand while the Zero-Tolerance policy should be kept in reserve for more serious offences. -Lobster001
A Ted talk was given by Laila Fakhoury. She highlights points within the educational system. She speaks of students who have been kicked out of schools for very miniscule offenses. Then, she claims these kids really do not get better when just given a harsh sentence such as this. She claims that students should have to undergo retribution. This is called restorative justice, rather than given a zero-tolerance policy. She gives the example of two students fighting. Sitting down, talking, humanizing the situation and understanding is key. Understanding humanity is key. Understanding is key in order to end the misbehaving, rather than just a zero tolerance policy. Past studies and research has come to show this. Students see the zero-tolerance punishment as labeling them as a bad kid. This then causes them to act out, as a bad kid should. When this restorative justice and peace circle process was applied, Laura claims this lead to an 87% decrease in suspension and decreases in other trouble related aspects in zero-tolerance schools nationwide. Laura claims this zero-tolerance school policy translates to those going to prison. Labeling one as a bad kid makes them believe this. As Laura says, she volunteered in prisons and many inmates underwent zero-tolerance policies at their schools. Perhaps the system can recognize this in due time. -freckles001
In the video of Restorative Justice it talks about the different reasons why the 0 tolerance policies didn’t so much help schools, but made a bigger problem in all. It created a “fear of culture” like it was said in the video, that which you knew if something was done wrong there would be a punishment. The 0 tolerance policy was made with good intentions of keeping order and rules that were meant to be followed. Once it took place, schools that had the 0 tolerance policy didn’t take under consideration the personal life at home of student, which would affect behavior. There are kids that don’t have an ideal home environment but yet are expected to be at school as if their lives at home doesn’t affect them. Leading to labeling in a kids life at a young age starts to leave a scar and they intend to believe when told multiple times. Restorative Justice meaning reversing the damage done, would help in 3 things that were mentioned are “accountability, repair harm, and restore relationships.” If it were used correctly, help kids express in specific ways that doesn’t lead to harming someone or themselves. It teaches how to deal with certain situations that doesn’t always involve school. There would be improvements in different areas of interactions, disciplinary problems, and in the prison pipeline. When labeling becomes something you believe you start to live it, when a kid it told to be a troublemaker at a young age they usually stay with a lifestyle like that. Which leads to juveniles getting in trouble then ending up in prison when they are adults.
I think that restorative justice has its place in schools. So does zero tolerance. Restorative justice has its place when maybe a kid was being called a name or bullied. The bully and the kid can sit down with a teacher and teach the bully what he did was wrong. How zero tolerance has its place in schools is punishing the bully. The punishment can be on how bad the bullying was or how many times it has happened before. If it keeps up, then the restorative justice probably should not be used, and they should be using higher forms of punishment to stop the bullying. I think that restorative justice and zero tolerance need to work hand in hand for a more successful program. The story of the lady that was kicked out of school has a lot of things going on in that story. It is sad that she turned away from school and joined the gangs and had terrible things happen to her. Her first time getting kicked out of school for drawing a line on the board seems off to me. If that was the only thing that she did and had no prior infractions, I agree that kicking her out of class is too harsh of a punishment for that infraction. If that is not true and she acted out more than that or she was a trouble maker that would make sense. The fact that she got arrested and she never told us what she did wrong does seem suspicious to me. She also talked about zero tolerance and the lady. The fact that she had multiple expulsions and suspensions appears as though she was a trouble maker and that is not zero tolerance because they kept letting her back. Sitting down and talking about feelings is all and well and it probably works in some situations, but not all cases and I believe that the best solution is for them to work hand in hand. -Legion001
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that restorative justice and zero tolerance both have their place. Implementing both can be very effective in these schools, but it can also be very controversial. You would have to draw a line somewhere, and whether you like it or not, not everybody is going to agree with your decisions. I would just do what is best statistically and let criticism go. -lilbaby001
DeleteI agree with the point that after some time restorative justice should not be used. I never had thought of the other side of zero tolerance and how it was actually implemented to stop bullying and harassment. I also agree that talking things out has its time and place but is not effective in every solution. Jackrabbit001
DeleteI agree with your argument that zero tolerance and restorative justice should work hand in hand. Restorative justice is more beneficial for the offender so sometimes restorative justice just doesn't work for the intensity of the crime of rule broken and that is when zero tolerance kicks in.
Delete-Drums001
Restorative justice is definitely an interesting topic especially in the realm of schools and how it correlates to the prisons. This lady brings up some interesting points about how zero policies affect prisoners and it makes perfect sense. Once a child in a school gets in trouble with a zero policy rule, they will automatically think that they are a bad kid and just continue to get trouble because they think that they are just a lost cause. This is where she talks about how restorative justice comes in. If we eliminate the zero policy rules in schools, it is proven by statistics that trouble in schools decrease. This is especially sad to the inmates that are in prison now due to the fact that they got in trouble with a zero policy rule back when people didn’t think about restorative justice. Granted, they are offenders and they did their crime and serve their time. Some people may think that there should be a mitigating factor due to this, but I do not think so. They should have some type of psychologist when they’re in prison, like this lady. She has helped many prisoners and that is what we think we need in our system. -lilbaby001
ReplyDeleteThere are some things that need to be zero tolerance issues. I think that if we make zero tolerance and restorative justice policies together it would work better than just one or the other. I agree that going to a zero tolerance school should not be a mitigating factor because that does not make sense. -Legion001
DeleteI also think it was interesting that they introduced restorative justice in schools. It seemed that with the zero tolerance policy they punished students with very harsh punishments. Restorative justice is proven to be a better alternative then zero tolerance. Although it is better it doesn't mean that they should get rid of zero tolerance altogether, but instead rework it.
Delete-Ram001
This video was very interesting. As I had been watching I believed this video to be related to mandatory minimums in due to the fact it had mentioned zero tolerance in relation to a one-strike rule. I do not believe that we should completely abandon a zero tolerance policy but instead revise it. I believe this because I don't believe restorative justice would be full proof. I really believe it can work in many situations but everyone must buy into it. If only half the staff and students buy in it won't work at all. I believe that restorative justice can turn into a "say you're sorry," type of situation if no one buys in. I completely stand behind the idea of communicating your emotions and working through your problems but I don't feel like that would work in every situation. I do agree with the point that with a strict zero-tolerance policy many students are given up on and that is a huge problem with the "pipeline from school to prison." Zero tolerance to me is reminiscent of the tough on crime aspect of the criminal justice system. Jackrabbit001
ReplyDeleteThe video had an interesting start with how Laila mentions that there are zero tolerance policies in her school. The school's intentions were good in the sense that they wanted their students to behave better. However I do not agree with the punishments they would give for minor infractions. Their zero tolerance policies are very similar to get tough on crime laws due to the harsh punishments given to students for small offenses. Later on they introduce restorative justice to replace the zero-tolerance policy. It is proven to have better results. In my opinion I do feel that the restorative justice would be more effective than zero tolerance. Although it can be efficient in schools, it may be difficult to bring restorative justice because students may not want to open up about how they felt during a conflict. However this does not mean that we should just get rid of the zero tolerance policy. These policies should be for more serious offenses. Laila later talks about how she saw kindergarten students confronting people who hurt them and tell them how they feel. I agree with her when she said that if kids learn about these things at a young age that it will help them with interactions they have later on in life. It is interesting that they are introducing ideas related to the criminal justice system into schools. I think it can have a positive impact on the students.
ReplyDelete-Ram001
i completely agree with you. with zero tolerance comes harsher punishments for minor infractions. A child often wont understand that the school is looking for order and better behavior, instead they feel targeted and unwanted. of course there need to be strict rules for more serious infractions such as fighting. however, i don't think zero tolerance is the best thing to introduce to a kid. SexyinBikini 001
DeleteShe had a lot of interesting things to say. I was in a pretty strict school my whole life and I experienced a little of what she described. When in trouble, it felt like I was the scum of the Earth just for my hair being too long. Administrators at schools often look more for stability and balance rather than trying to help a child through their problems. This often results in the child feeling targeted and excluded which could cause serious problems for the development of his or her mind in the long run. From a young age, children in a “zero tolerance” environment will be exposed to harsh and seemingly unfair punishment. This however is not to say that zero tolerance has no place in schools. However, it can portray that the world is against them and a sense of not belonging. When someone feels that they don’t belong, they feel inadequate leading to vulnerability. When feeling vulnerable people look to the next closest thing that could offer them a sense of security. Sadly, in most cases, that sense of security is either found in a drug, or a gang. However, through restorative justice, youth can express how they feel to one another and don’t feel as excluded. Students can feel safer talking to teachers about how they are being bullied, or what their home life is like. With restorative justice, schools offer a place of not only education, but a sense of security and belonging. Hopefully this will help prevent youth from turning to gangs and crime. sexy_in 001
ReplyDeleteI agree that implementing a zero tolerance policy in schools can really mess up a kid’s mind. They will soon make the assumption that they cannot mess up and if they do there will be a huge punishment for it. This isn’t good because kids need to be kids, because this is how we learn. If we don’t make mistakes as a kid then we will never truly know what is right and what is wrong. -Celtics001
DeleteThis Ted Talk talks about restorative justice and how its good for the United States. She talks about when she was in school and got suspended because she wore a zip up jacket that didn’t show her school letters. Her school had a zero tolerance policy that meant regardless of the offense the police would be called or the child would be suspended. She then shows the data of schools that went to a restorative justice policy instead of the zero tolerance policy and how they improved. One school said that implementing the policy for four years led to an 87% decrease in suspensions and the expulsion rate dropped to 0. I think that this data is very misleading, because if the policy before was to suspend or expel kids for almost all offenses, then of course taking away the policy will lead to a decrease in suspensions. Instead I would like to see if the offenses went up or down, because that is really the end goal for the schools. Regardless of this, I am a big supporter of restorative justice because it has been proven to work. Why put away a bunch of non-violent criminals that have an addiction, when we could help fix their addiction and get them on track for a better life? I think that if we used more restorative justice then our prison population would decrease and the reoffending rate would go down as well. -Celtics001
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, the idea you brought up about offenses being committed rather than expulsion rates going down. Because, like you said of course if we no longer have the zero tolerance policy, the expulsions will decrease. But, does that mean less of those offenses are being committed? Or are they just being less harshly punished?-psyh001
DeleteI agree with your thought of the study to be misleading because who knows of the offences committed that year, let alone if they are suspend-able offences. I am curious if they just looked at the problems that occured compared to the previous years or if they looked at the solutions to the problems. -Lobster001
DeleteZero tolerance policies in schools started off as a positive. They were implemented to prevent drugs, weapons, and other dangerous things from being brought into our schools. As expressed in this Ted Talk though, zero tolerance policies turned into something used as a fear tactic for even the smallest infractions. The example given in our video clip was a young girl in elementary school being punished as a cheater or a bully should for simply wearing the wrong kind of jacket one day. To counter these harsh ways, many people suggest restorative justice. Restorative justice being used from a young age can condition children to express themselves in healthy, productive ways rather than making them so fearful of punishment and failure that they get so overwhelmed, they end up becoming people that resort to fighting, and overall misbehaving which can ultimately up their chances of getting into legal trouble once they're older. Laila Faukhry, the Ted Talk speaker on restorative justice addressed the, "widening school to prison pipeline," which is alarming. After working in both schools, and prisons Laila has personally seen the links between the destruction caused by zero tolerance policies in schools, and those who end up in prison. Like miss Laila, I am too an aspiring psychology major, even more specifically a forensic psychology major. Things like restorative justice resonate so well with me because it is spoken in my kind of language. This Ted Talk was well worth the watch, and really touches on some interesting topics.-psych001
ReplyDeleteYou are right about how zero tolerance had started out as positive idea but soon became the whole scare tactic across the nation. I think the fear that this is instilling in young children is affecting them very negativity even if we don't notice it now and will lead to a future of problems all stemming from being punished too severely. -Blues001
DeleteI agree with everything that you stated in your blog. I liked how you first started off your blog by explaining that zero tolerance was supposed to be used as a positive thing, but then it ended up going too far and in the completely wrong direction. Instead of helping children and students, it actually caused more harm than good. -Anchorman001
DeleteI think eliminating zero tolerance in some certain aspects of school would be a good idea but it would need to remain for some of the more dangerous infractions for the safety of others. The speaker brought up a vast amount of ideas of how this could not only impact children's lives early in life but it could also impact the prisons across America. The aspect of restorative justice giving children a life skill to be able to handle their emotions in a positive way could drastically improve their lives in the future. A kid not knowing how to express their feelings in a positive manner can result in much bigger issues when life gets very hard and cause them to potentially commit violent crimes. For a psychologist like this woman to go into a prison and learn so much about these individuals who have been dug into a hole based off of zero tolerance was very smart. She learned so much from them and early on issues in life and that reinforces her reasoning to implement restorative justice in our school systems. The statistics are there and prove how much of a change this would make in a child's life and also the school system as a whole. I believe this would be something very positive to start pushing for in schools across America and see how big of a change this would create. -Blues001
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the zero tolerance policy is necessary for some offenses such as bullying, drugs, weapons, etc. This policy would be best suited for keeping the rest of the students safe while guiding the offender away from the bad habits. It is also important, however to not punish small offenses too harshly because then those students will feel singled out for something that should not be as big of a deal.
Delete-Reid001
Zero tolerance is a good thing for serious offenses, like bringing a weapon to school. Schools should have, and do have, a zero tolerance for this which has been crucial children’s safety. This makes sense and I’m pretty sure everyone would agree with a zero tolerance policy for weapons in schools, but it should not be handed out for every policy. Restorative justice is beneficial where zero tolerance isn’t. First of all, restorative justice is simply fair. It allows the offender to understand what they did wrong, why they received the punishment they got, and why they should not do it again. Secondly, restorative justice allows the victim to express their feelings towards the act the offender committed which, in turn, allows the offender to understand perspective and also teaches the victim to have self esteem and to express their feelings, reducing the possibility of future conflicts. The benefits of restorative justice don’t stop with school; they would also be beneficial if implemented into the criminal justice system. Restorative justice enhances human rights and rehabilitation which would reduce the amount of repeat offenders and would do a better job of humanized offenders, allowing them to have a smoother transition back into the world when they leave prison.
ReplyDeleteDrums001
Zero tolerance was started to make sure that students were not going to be bringing drugs and weapons to school. In my opinion, for this very purpose the zero tolerance rule was great, but the fact that teachers and ministration now use zero tolerance for little things such as suspending a student for wearing a zip up sweatshirt over the school uniform which did not have the school’s logo on it is a big harsh and will not benefit the student whatsoever. Also in the video it stated that students would get in trouble and even suspended for things such as falling asleep in class by accident or sharing food at lunch time. If this were to be the case for the school that I went too, I would have been in trouble every day at lunch because I always shared my food with my friends and they would do the same with me. The fact that they are starting do do something about the harsh situation using restorative justice, which seeks to encourage accountability, repair harm, and restore relationships. During the video Laila said that when she was in school, if the administration would have switched from zero tolerance to restorative justice, the administration would have seen three different improvements take place. One would be a rise in positive student interactions. The second one was a drop in disciplinary problems, and the third one was a narrower school to prison pipeline. During the video she explained how well the system of restorative justice works on training students to better themselves. One thing that stood out to me was that when she was talking about all the goods of restorative justice and how it can help in many situations, she made the statement that restorative justice is not always the right system for every single situation. Restorative justice allows the students to learn about each others feelings and teaches students how to communicate properly without feeling the need to have to use violence to make a point. One thing that really stood out to me in this video was when Laila said that in schools that use zero tolerance, the word bad kid and zero tolerance are now affiliated and the student will believe that he or she is truly not a good person. This means that zero tolerance will actually do more harm than good and that individual who is now known as a bad kid will believe they are bad and most likely continue to head down the wrong path in life and cause more problematic issues at school and anywhere else they go. Restorative justice does not do that to any individual. Restorative justice allows second chances and does not consider a child to be a bad person for one wrong mistake. -Anchorman001
ReplyDeleteRestorative justice seems like it could work in a lot of different situations, especially with younger children. Like miss Fakhoury says in her presentation many of the children in the kindergarten class seem to be able to communicate better than some adults because they were given the opportunity to learn the skill at a young age. They are learning to talk about their problems and find a solution to them, with the help of their peers. Instead of current zero tolerance policies restorative justice could be used to help people put their differences aside and understand another person’s perspective by communicating with them effectively and efficiently. Over all restorative justice could offer a much more productive method of teaching young people right from wrong, simply by communicating with each other, as opposed to punishing a child for a mistake we all could have easily made when we were young. We are human we make mistakes if there is no room for forgiveness in that regard then many people will continue to be pushed down a rout they don't need to go down and not only they, but we as a society will suffer in the end. -Waterboy001
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you said society will suffer in the end if we push people down a route they don't need to go down. It kind of seems like society is the one creating all the "bad" people that end up in jail and then say we need to be careful from them. taco001
DeleteLaila Fakhoury talks about how the zero tolerance rules that are set in place in schools do more harm than good because they show students that once they mess up, the school is giving up on them rather than helping them figure out why they are acting the way they are and how to fix the problem. Laila suggests replacing zero tolerance with restorative justice because then the students have a chance to talk the problem out and fix it, breaking the cycle of bad behavior. Many schools are making the switch and the numbers are proving this method is much more effective. The number of suspensions in one middle school dropped 87% and the expulsions dropped to 0. More schools need to put these methods in place because students are in the formative years of their lives, so if their behavior is fixed, they will grow up to be crime-free adults. Laila volunteers at a prison 6 out of 7 days of the week, so she has become very close with some of the inmates. One person she became close with is Lolita. Lolita was arrested when she was 16 and is still in prison at the age of 40. When asked why she thought she was the way she was, she immediately recalled when she was rejected from the school play in kindergarten and she has been rejected many times since then too. She had a rough childhood and rather than having someone be there for her, she was punished for the way she was acting even though her behavior was obviously a cry for help. Schools need to pay attention to the actions and behavior of children because they can be helped at a young age, but once they become adults and these behaviors become habits, it becomes a lot harder to reform them.
ReplyDelete-Reid001
The topic of Restorative Justice is very interesting. In this Ted Talk I was intrigued with the mention of a belief for a school to prison pipeline. Such a thought is interesting to me because I never really saw a link until this Ted Talk. The woman discusses from early signs involving the Zero-Tolerance Policy, the view that kids see themselves and this belief they build and hold is what directs them in life. Their idea of being labeled a bad kid has them thinking for the rest of their life that they are bad and it creates the tendency for them to act out and try to be a bad kid. Restorative Justice is interesting because of how it works. The action of rehabilitating inmates through reconciles between them and the community is a great idea because it may help those with mental thoughts of them being labeled to forget the labels and move past it. Restorative Justice as said by the woman is even being used for the youngest generations, in one kindergarten class, children were exposed to this method and were shown to stand up to the bullies not only in their grade level but classes ahead of them as well. Personally I think Restorative Justice should be used first hand while the Zero-Tolerance policy should be kept in reserve for more serious offences. -Lobster001
ReplyDeleteA Ted talk was given by Laila Fakhoury. She highlights points within the educational system. She speaks of students who have been kicked out of schools for very miniscule offenses. Then, she claims these kids really do not get better when just given a harsh sentence such as this. She claims that students should have to undergo retribution. This is called restorative justice, rather than given a zero-tolerance policy. She gives the example of two students fighting. Sitting down, talking, humanizing the situation and understanding is key. Understanding humanity is key. Understanding is key in order to end the misbehaving, rather than just a zero tolerance policy. Past studies and research has come to show this. Students see the zero-tolerance punishment as labeling them as a bad kid. This then causes them to act out, as a bad kid should. When this restorative justice and peace circle process was applied, Laura claims this lead to an 87% decrease in suspension and decreases in other trouble related aspects in zero-tolerance schools nationwide. Laura claims this zero-tolerance school policy translates to those going to prison. Labeling one as a bad kid makes them believe this. As Laura says, she volunteered in prisons and many inmates underwent zero-tolerance policies at their schools. Perhaps the system can recognize this in due time. -freckles001
ReplyDeleteIn the video of Restorative Justice it talks about the different reasons why the 0 tolerance policies didn’t so much help schools, but made a bigger problem in all. It created a “fear of culture” like it was said in the video, that which you knew if something was done wrong there would be a punishment. The 0 tolerance policy was made with good intentions of keeping order and rules that were meant to be followed. Once it took place, schools that had the 0 tolerance policy didn’t take under consideration the personal life at home of student, which would affect behavior. There are kids that don’t have an ideal home environment but yet are expected to be at school as if their lives at home doesn’t affect them. Leading to labeling in a kids life at a young age starts to leave a scar and they intend to believe when told multiple times. Restorative Justice meaning reversing the damage done, would help in 3 things that were mentioned are “accountability, repair harm, and restore relationships.” If it were used correctly, help kids express in specific ways that doesn’t lead to harming someone or themselves. It teaches how to deal with certain situations that doesn’t always involve school. There would be improvements in different areas of interactions, disciplinary problems, and in the prison pipeline. When labeling becomes something you believe you start to live it, when a kid it told to be a troublemaker at a young age they usually stay with a lifestyle like that. Which leads to juveniles getting in trouble then ending up in prison when they are adults.
ReplyDeletetaco001
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