Restoring Justice
School violence in Philadelphia
The Problem
A national survey found that 48% of children ages 5-17 years old reported exposure to at least one form of victimization (e.g., robbery, physical assault) within school (Finkelhor et al., 2016).
An ESL teacher at Olney Charter High School in Philadelphia states that physical fights occur everyday. The prevalence of school violence is met with harmful zero-tolerance policies that punish students through out of school suspensions and serious incidents (assaults, disorderly conduct, harassment, etc.) reported to School District Police.
In the 2018-19 school year in the Philadelphia School District , 8,520 students (6.23% of the total student body) received out of school suspensions and 4,516 serious incidents were reported to School District Police.
Understanding Violence
School violence is often misunderstood as a problem between specific groups or individuals. The common tendency to assign individual blame or instill individual responsibility in students likely explains the implementation of zero tolerance policies and the hyper surveillance of schools. However, fully understanding school violence requires acknowledging the larger contextual factors of the environment such as oppressive schooling, economic pressure, political tension, and a recent rise in prejudice such as racism and xenophobia.
Structural Violence
Oppressive social conditions in urban communities—i.e. inadequate educational opportunities, high unemployment and underemployment, disinvestment in communities, lack of access to quality resources, police brutality, and an unjust court system—create an environment of vulnerability, aggression, and resistance.
In Philadelphia, school lockdowns happen as frequently as every other day . Students from a young age normalize violence in the community and often suffer from violence-related trauma as a result.
In the 2017-18 school year in the Philadelphia School District , there were 123 assaults on teachers and 35 on administrators by parents.
Addressing Violence: Social Control
The most common method of addressing school violence is through social control which creates prison-like institutions with school security, metal detectors, zero tolerance policies, and strict dress codes. Efforts to maintain order and discipline can actually have an adverse effect by leading students to reject the intrusion of school control into their everyday lives and defy authority (Watts & Erevelles, 2004).
School Security
School security socializes students into a culture of violence by gradually introducing them to the tactics and practices that police officers use in handling street criminals.
Philly students understand this problem and in June of this year held a police-free schools protest with over 200 supporters. They stated that they already feel constant police scrutiny in their neighborhoods and that school security makes them feel even more criminalized.
The Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) created a petition asking for the School District to remove all police and school resource officers from school and replace them with community members trained in de-escalation and other skills that support restorative justice.
Despite a strong movement for police-free schools, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers wants more school security to prevent assaults on staff.
Addressing Violence: Restorative Justice
In order to more equitably address school violence, we need to shift our mindset away from social control and towards more just practices. Executive director of the Education Law Center Deborah Gordon Klehr points out the “violence and racism inherent in a policed environment” and explains how safety and security in schools can be achieved by “implementing preventive and restorative practices” (Mezzacappa, 2020, p. 5).
Restorative Justice (RJ) strives to build a community of care by implementing restorative conversations, conferences, and peer mediation. A systemic evaluation of RJ practices for school violence prevention and response found a reduction in exclusionary practices and bullying behavior with an increase in social skills, self-esteem, and positive social relationships (Katic, Alba, & Johnson, 2020).
Restorative Conversations
include both affective statements and questions which explore how the parties involved have been affected by the incident. In the classroom, these conversations can allow students to talk about what’s on their minds and how they’re feeling about school violence.
Restorative Conferences
increase the number of voices in the conversation to build a community of care and address the need for relationship healing. Community leaders can play a vital role in conferences to encourage unity among the student body.
Peer Mediation
has students utilize conflict resolution skills in order to improve relationships and reduce the threat of violence. Peer mediation is intended to provide students with the opportunity to independently work out their differences in a constructive manner, as opposed to having disciplinary systems resolve their differences for them.
A More Just Future
Schools that implement social control to address school violence only add to the oppression that BIPOC students face in this country. Through restorative justice, the damage of structural violence can begin to be addressed and the creation of safe schools will help all students grow and learn in unity.
