Crystal Lake principals teach Illinois school administrators restorative justice

Adela Crandall Durkee for Chronicle Media

 

Attendees of restorative justice training elect to sign up for a full-day live session or a hybrid model, which includes a three-hour on-site session and a follow-up online component. During the live sessions, attendees have time to create initial student disciplinary action plans for their school.

Attendees of restorative justice training elect to sign up for a full-day live session or a hybrid model, which includes a three-hour on-site session and a follow-up online component. During the live sessions, attendees have time to create initial student disciplinary action plans for their school.

Two local school principals led the way with training Illinois teachers alternative student disciplinary measure in the wake of Public Act 99-456.

Jeff Prickett, Principal at Bernotas Middle School and District 47 Principal, Steve Scarfe, began crafting a training program for Illinois administrators in mid-2015. By the end of the 2016-17 school year, more than 1,000 educators and administration for Pre-K through 12th grade, along with some parents and social workers will be armed with the necessary knowledge and tools to make restorative justice work for school districts.

Public Act 99-456 eliminates automatic “zero tolerance” suspensions and expulsions, and requires that schools exhaust all possible interventions before expelling students or suspending them for more than three days.

Through restorative justice practices, students stay in school and remain engaged in learning instead of being suspended. Administrators approach issues at hand through helping students repair relationships and through activities where students take measures to restore the damage they did by breaking the rules. Fellow classmates may participate in restorative justice as part of peer juries.

Prior to coming to District 47, Scarfe was an assistant principal at Kingsley Elementary in Evanston, North School in Des Plaines, and Guilford High School in Rockford. Before that, he was in the U.S. Marine Corps for 13 years and served as a federal agent for 12 years.

Of his military background, Scarfe says, “The stereotype of the military is that it’s very top down and punitive. But a strong military unit is built on teamwork. A number of the military restorative principles work well with kids too.”

Scarfe got interested in “the tower of restorative justice,” while completing his doctoral work in Educational Leadership at Concordia.

“I worked in a lot of schools with high poverty,” he said. “I knew that what we were doing was in effective in reforming behavior.” He recognized that zero tolerance often makes the parents of victims, the victims and the teacher feel like something is being done. However, it is doesn’t address the root cause of behavior. Still, he didn’t know a better way.

“I began looking at some of the hardest experiences I had through the lens of a restorative approach,” he said. “When I heard that the law might change, I contacted the IPA. We started with a fall and a summer conference; just in Springfield.”

Zero tolerance policies became a popular way to assure safety in schools after the Columbine massacre. Schools began instituting zero policy programs for weapons, drugs, alcohol, physical altercations, and bullying. Districts applied the policies with varying degrees of strictness. Regardless of the underlying cause or degree of the misbehavior, suspension or expulsion resulted. Although zero tolerance makes schools safer, it does not correct behavior.

Scarfe says, “I knew with all my heart, that expulsions and suspensions don’t work toward changing behavior.”

Because of his enthusiasm for the program, Illinois Principal Association’s (IPA) asked Scarfe to put together a training program for its members. Scarfe knew that Prickett shared his passion for addressing students’ underlying needs, and asked him to help present the workshop across the state. Soon the two Crystal Lake principals began presenting the Restorative Justice program in six-hour workshops to schools throughout Illinois.

Prickett, named this year’s IPA Kishwaukee Region Middle School Principal of the Year, worked as an elementary and middle school principal in Round Lake and McHenry and has been the principal of Bernotas Middle School for the past two years.

Prickett says that the Restorative Justice workshop attendees are very receptive.

Prickett and Scarfe go through research data and philosophy.

“Even one suspension in 9th grade can increase risk of drop-out, exorbitantly,” Prickett said. “People want to know what they can do, to make things better.”

Although critics look at the Restorative Justice approach as soft, the data show that the hard approach creates a culture of fear and a pipeline to prison.

According to Jean Smith, associate director for professional development at the IPA, Prickett and Scarfe were ideal candidates to lead the trainings because of their current roles and previous experience.

“I’ve never seen two administrators more excited about a topic,” said Smith. “They are both very knowledgeable and passionate and deeply committed to the idea of restorative justice.”

Attendees of restorative justice training elect to sign up for a full-day live session or a hybrid model, which includes a three-hour on-site session and a follow-up online component. During the live sessions, attendees have time to create initial student disciplinary action plans for their school.

According to Smith, the IPA has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from workshop attendees citing that they feel more equipped to handle the upcoming school discipline changes after the sessions and appreciated the opportunity to create an actionable plan on-site.

Looking ahead, Smith said she sees an opportunity for the IPA to provide additional, more in-depth training on restorative justice, where the focus will be on implementation of ideas and practices.