Is Restorative Justice Worth It?

From the Coronavirus, to racial awakening, to the Instagram accounts, our community has faced a lot of problems this past year. One of the primary responses the upper-school and top level administration teams have proposed is restorative justice. Although the term ‘restorative justice’ has become ubiquitous on campus, few students have ever seen or participated in it. So it’s natural to wonder if the school is actually committed to restorative justice. Or are we just getting lip service? 

So all this begs the question: what even is restorative justice? As is the case for many students, the School never really explained it to me. So I did some research. Here’s what I came up with: In the criminal justice system, restorative justice is viewed as an alternative to the punitive justice model, which only looks at the crime that was done and what the punishment should be for it. On the other hand, restorative justice is the act of bringing people together to talk about what happened, why it happened, how people have been impacted by it — the goal being to repair any harm in a way that meets the needs of both the victims and perpetrators. 

In schools it’s a little different, according to David Yusem, the restorative justice coordinator for the Oakland Unified School District.“It’s mostly about building the community from which you can then have those conversations [to repair the harm],” he said. To Johara Tucker, the director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion at the School, “the primary focus…is that you’re trying to restore the relationship that’s been broken or offended.”

How would the School implement restorative justice? It really requires a cultural shift, according to Yusem. “You’re not just talking about bringing in a new curriculum or a new policy,” he said. “You’re talking about transforming a culture from one thing to another, and the thing you’re transforming it into is very different from what the dominant culture is used to.” 

In order for restorative justice to work, there needs to be commitment from the very top of the administration to just regular students —everyone needs to be in this together. For the School, commitment might look like hiring someone to help implement it and change the culture. This person would train and get the faculty familiar with the concept, and do the most important work of building community by facilitating circles. Because as Yusem put it: “Why would someone want to repair the community, repair harm done to the community, if they don’t feel a part of that community?”

“Conflict is normal. The goal is not to never have conflict,” Yusem said. “The goal is to deal with it effectively.” Reflect about the times you had conflict with someone, whether it be another student, friend, teacher. Maybe you’re in conflict right now. Tucker would ask you, “Does the relationship mean more to you than the harm that’s been done to you?” Ask yourself that, and if the relationship means more to you, consider using restorative practices to repair the harm done.

Changing a culture is a monumental task and not something that can get done immediately. “The community is in a space where people do want it, but I don’t know if people are really truly ready on a large scale to apply it,” Tucker said. So we need to start small. It starts with every individual in our community asking themselves: ‘How can I implement restorative practices in the spaces I’m a part of right now?”

Maybe the School isn’t ready for restorative justice on a large scale yet, but that doesn’t mean that students can’t do it ourselves. The potential and the possibility for us to build community together is still apparent. But that’s the key for Yusem: to do it together. “The goal of restorative justice is to be with each other, rather than to do to each other.”