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Dignity in Schools posted this piece by Derek Slaughter, a high school student from Baltimore, Maryland who is involved in a national student movement to draft a Student's Bill of Rights. This strikes me as a significant move by youth to establish their own rights. I found some information about this movement here. Slaughter here argues for explicit mention of the "right to restorative justice" in this prospective "bill of rights."

Justice for All

By Derek Slaughter

Throughout my educational career, I have heard my peers say that things aren’t fair or that they have been unjustly punished in schools. Administration being overzealous to implement extreme disciplinary action is a common theme in schools throughout the country, which I have observed in my travels. For this reason the National Student Bill of Rights movement believes in installing restorative justice systems in communities and schools.

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Photo by Paul Sableman, Flick Creative Commons

On May 9, 2012 a piece titled, "Jovenes Unidos Win Landmark Discipline Reform" was posted on the group's web site. It details a new law passed in Colorado which seems to do away with "zero tolerance" policy in schools – where children are summarily suspended or expelled for certain offenses.

Late Wednesday evening, the Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 46 - the safe schools through smart discipline bill - as an amendment to the Colorado School Finance Act. The passage of SB 46 bill represents a landmark victory for the State of Colorado and Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, whose members have organized for over two years for a legislative solution to end zero-tolerance policies and racial disparities in school discipline practices.

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This morning the RJC has sent an email "asking all our members to support our call to Government to enact restorative justice legislation" by Friday, June 22, 2012 (TODAY), and to take advantage of this "opportunity to make restorative justice available to all victims of crime."

The email states:

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Reporting from the American Humane Conference on Family Group Decision Making this morning, Ted Wachtel writes:

Nigel Richardson gave an excellent opening keynote that relied on the critical themes of restorative practices for helping children in the two cities where he has served as director of Children's Services: Hull and Leeds, UK.

The title of his keynote was "Only Connect...Transforming Life Chances — How Serious Are We?"

He began with the quote from E. M. Forster's book, Howards End: "Live in fragments no longer. Only connect."

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From the Oakland LocalThe Oakland Local has this thorough piece, "Oakland leads ways as restorative justice techniques enter education mainstream". It begins:

Jacob Mathis was a classic underachiever and troubled child.

The 15 year old’s grade point average was just 0.77 and by his own accord, he had “extreme anger problems” stemming from his relationship with his stepdad. His emotional turmoil often spilled over into school and affected his conduct in the classroom. After an incident in which he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, he was sentenced to probation.

Mathis’ life changed for the better after his probation officer recommended he enroll in a summer program at East Oakland teen and young adult center Youth Uprising - it utilized restorative justice, a community-focused, therapeutic process that addresses youth violence by helping perpetrators understand the roots of their anger and grasp how they have done others harm.

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August 9th - 11th in Denver, Colorado at the University of Colorado-Denver, Tivoli Turnhalle

From the conference web site:

What Makes the Summit Unique

  • A revolutionary framework for participation that encourages learning from the collective intelligence of the group
  • The opportunity to build relationships within the RJ community that promote and support best practices
  • The promise of creating a Colorado RJ Professional Association to advance restorative justice practices that are rooted in research and evaluation

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Research from Derbyshire, UK posted in the Derby Telegraph confirms what other studies have also found: when done well, restorative justice conferences produce a very high victim satisfaction rate, exceeding both courts and mediation. Below is an excerpt of the article:

MORE than nine out of ten crime victims who saw offenders punished by restorative justice have been left satisfied by the outcome, say police.

A survey by Derbyshire Constabulary, showed 94.8% of those questioned were either fairly or very satisfied with the experience, a figure the force described as "phenomenally high" and an increase on last year's 90.8%.

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IIRP President Ted Wachtel phoned in last night (very late) to report on the conference he's attending in Helsinki, Finland. He said:

Today I attended the first day of the European Forum for Restorative Justice Conference that’s being held in Helsinki, Finland. It was nice to hear Nils Christie give a plenary speech. Nils Christie is now an 84-year-old emeritus professor from Norway whose famous article, “Conflict As Property,” defined the whole idea that governments and courts and lawyers steal our conflicts, and that we should have a right and an opportunity to resolve our own conflicts.

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The following story appeared at the City of Lima's web page. The original story in Spanish can be found here. Thanks to Google Translate for translation!

Mayor Susana Villarán holds up a t-shirt reading "Give Back to Your City" at the program presentation

The Metropolitan Municipality of Lima has launched a program called "Give back to your city" in order to resolve conflicts in neighborhoods, emphasizing harmony and peaceful coexistence through healthy and fair treatment between the community and authorities.

This program, which was introduced by the mayor of Lima, Susana Villarán, in the "Plaza of the Fence" in Barrios Altos, seeks to raise public awareness of the importance of using restorative practices as a strategy to improve coexistence and citizen security.

It also involves reducing violence in the community, improving relations between citizens and repairing damage done when it is done through rebuilding, reconciling, reintegrating and living fully in community.

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You can read Ted Wachtel's first blog post at Huffington Post, titled "There Are Proven Tools to Make Schools Safe, We Just Have to Use Them." Be sure to comment and share!

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