Case Stories

Alternative to Suspension Saves 17 Students’ Academic Careers

* All names have been changed to protect the identities of the participants

Out of Control 
Principal Williams called Restorative Response Baltimore (formerly CCC) after 17 of his students were involved in two fights. The first fight took place in the cafeteria where rumors fueled a fight between two groups of boys. The principal would later describe the scene as “out of control”. The only way school police officers could break up the fight and disperse the crowd was to use mace. Ten young men were identified as “involved”. Within half an hour, another fight broke out in the gym, this time involving sisters and girlfriends of some of the young men from the initial fight. By the end of the day, 17 students were in need of disciplinary action.

Calling Community Conferencing
Principal Williams later admitted that his first reaction was to propose all 17 for suspension. However, as a result of his agreement with Restorative Response to use conferencing instead of suspension whenever possible, he called the CCC in hopes of some assistance. He placed all of the students on “excused leave” until the Community Conference was scheduled.

The Community Conferencing facilitator spent much of the week speaking with the 17 students and their families. It became clear that students fell into one of two sides of this incident. Most of the families were upset their children were out of school. Some parents, through their child’s account of what happened, were angry with the administration and viewed the meeting as a “complete waste of time”. Many questioned what would be accomplished. The facilitator continued to explain a Community Conference allow everyone to come together to:

• hear what happened
• talk about how they have been affected, and
• come up with a written agreement to resolve things

43 Participants
The following week, 43 people assembled in the school library for the Community Conference. The 17 students, their families, Mr. Williams, Ms. Carey (the assistant principal), the school police officer and a teacher all sat in the large circle.

After the first student spoke, it didn’t take long before young people and parents started shouting across the circle with questions and comments about what happened. In fact, one young man left the circle after threatening another student. He was followed by his mother and the police officer who, after 15 minutes, managed to calm him down enough to return to the Community Conference. Over the next few minutes, it became clear to the group that the young ladies were further along in resolving their incident, so a second Community Conferencing facilitator led the young ladies, their families, and Ms. Carey into another room to have their own Community Conference. Within 45 minutes, the girls had created and signed an agreement.

Throwing a Dollar Bill
Meanwhile, back in the library, the young men and their parents spent a lot of time sifting through the events leading up to the fight. After some discussion, everyone learned the conflict stemmed from one student owing another student $1 for a candy bar. Parents were shocked and dismayed, and the students acknowledged that something fairly insignificant had escalated into a huge altercation. In addition, some of the parents got to hear for the first time the extent of their child’s involvement. This, along with allowing the group to talk about how everyone was personally affected, created a different tone in the room.

Emotional Shift
At this point one of the young men took advantage of the emotional shift; he got up from his chair, walked across the center of the circle, and shook the hand of one of the young men on the “opposing” side. From there, everyone got up, boys shook hands and mothers and fathers hugged. The young men who had the heated verbal exchange earlier shook hands as well. Laughter followed – a clear signal that the tension that had been felt so strongly in the beginning, had now transformed into a feeling of relief and connectedness.

Written Agreement
After formally laying out their agreement, giving and accepting apologies, and making plans for future actions, the entire group recognized the incident that affected so many had now been healed. The Principal thanked all of the families for not only making an effort to attend, and also for coming up with a positive resolution. Since everyone was in agreement that the situation was truly resolved, the principal announced that every student would be allowed to return to school the next day. All 17 suspensions were averted.

The Principal pointed out to the families and the community that, by utilizing Community Conferencing, they were capable of coming up with positive and long-lasting solutions on their own.