Abstract
This chapter addresses the promises and pitfalls of restorative justice (RJ) practices for youth with communication disorders. This chapter begins with the historical context, the current zero-tolerance policies and other harsh, exclusionary discipline measures used in schools and (in)justice system, harming Black disabled students disproportionately. This chapter then addresses the promise of RJ as a way to challenge zero-tolerance while building inclusive communities that focus on the growth of young people in community. This chapter provides a step-by-step discussion of a restorative circle, a practice based on talking, listening, and processing emotions. Speech-language pathologists are called upon to learn about the promise of RJ, engage in restorative practices, and then utilize their specific knowledge of communication disorders to develop universal design circles so that youth with communication disorders and other invisible disabilities can be included and the promise of restorative justice fully realized.
TopIntroduction
Restorative Justice (RJ) is both philosophy and practice with roots in Native American societies. The practice is built upon a philosophy that humanity flourishes through community (Pranis, 2005), and strong communities develop through practices grounded in values of empathy, care, inclusion and responsibility to one another (Zehr et al., 2015). Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) include interactions grounded in the philosophy of RJ and include “restorative questioning, restorative chats or dialogue, victim-offender mediation, restorative circles, and community conferencing” (Morrison and Vaandering, 2012; Zehr et al., 2015). A common RJP utilized in schools is the Circle, a space created by individuals coming together to build community or repair harm with an understanding that all students belong, all humans cause harm to others and having a way to address the harm committed without excluding.
In contrast, the U.S. is organized around capitalism as both the economic order and the ideological framing for all social institutions. Schooling, a central institution in the U.S., is thus structured toward creating human capital. Rather than focusing on human development, schooling prioritizes a curriculum designed to shape students for futures of building economic capital as workers. The idea is that a strong nation has a “competitive” workforce that results in a strong economy. In this arrangement young people are ranked, sorted and socialized to see that some humans are more valuable than others (Kozol, 2005; Lipman, 2004; Giroux, 1984; Shor and Freire, 1987). Exclusionary and punitive practices are used to both mark the boundaries of accepted behaviors and to serve as a warning to all students that they must conform or they too will face exclusion. Avoiding exclusion is a difficult for students -- disabled, Black, immigrant, and poor -- entering an educational system in which they are already perceived as unable to conform, less valuable and excludable (Stanford and Muhammad, 2018). The standardization of curriculum and testing used to rank, sort and promote students ignores existing inequality and differences among students and in society. In circular fashion, then, test scores are used to justify on-going practices that devalue, exclude and reproduce systemic inequality (Lipman, 2004). Not surprisingly, Black disabled students face push-out at the highest rates of all groups.
This chapter will begin with the historical context of RJP in schools and the justice system within the context of zero-tolerance policies over the past four decades. The analysis pays particular attention to the way zero-tolerance measures, those uncompromising, punitive measures that function to exclude rather than help children develop, have functioned to disproportionately punish and exclude children with disabilities (Duncan, 2014). Effectively challenging and shifting away from current hierarchical, punitive and exclusion-based practices in schools will require that RJ practices are inclusive (Hayes and Snow, 2013; Burnett and Thorsborne, 2015; Dalmage, Michaels, and Balgoyen, 2016). Using a step-by-step overview of one particular RJ practice – the Circle – this chapter will clarify the promise and highlight the challenges of RJ in schools. Most RJ practices, including the Circle, are based on talking, dialogue, reflection on emotions, building empathy and support. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are encouraged to learn about RJ, participate in the Circle process, and then utilize their expertise on communication disorders to develop universal design RJ practices. If students with communication disorders and other disabilities are excluded because of their disabilities, then the promise of RJ will not be realized. For this reason, this chapter concludes with a call to action. SLPs have important knowledge and insight that could and should be mobilized toward much needed awareness and inclusivity of youth with communication disorders in RJ practices.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Circle Keeper or Keeper: This person generally has practiced knowledge of the Circle process and is responsible for pre-conferencing, facilitating, and following up on the Circle.
School-to-Prison Pipeline: Also called the Pipeline or the School-to-Containment Pipeline. This includes a set of unjust institutional practices and inequalities that push children out of school and into the juvenile justice system.
Restorative Practices: Also called Restorative Justice Practices or RJP, are the actions and rituals that allow individuals and communities to live the RJ philosophy. In schools this would include the Circle as reviewed above.
Restorative Justice: A philosophy that place human relationships central to living in harmonious, caring communities that make space for addressing and redressing harms.
SROs: Student Resource Officers. Police officers used to control, contain and enforce Zero-tolerance policies in schools.
Zero-Tolerance: A series of practices and policies that demanded and allowed institutional actors in positions of authority to enforce rules without compromise or considerations.
Universal Design Circle: Similar to Universal Design Learning, the goal is to create a space that all participants are able to access the activities, actions, and outcomes without being separated or specially accommodated. All members of the Circle will engage in the same activities, keeping all members feeling fully included and connected to one another in the Circle.
Human Capital: An approach to the world that places human value in their productive capabilities relative to economic markets, often to the exclusion of imagination, creativity and community.
School Push-Out: A series of actions in schools that lead a child to feel disconnected and alienated so the child leaves school or the child is removed from school through formal and informal disciplinary actions such as suspension and expulsion.