Comments on: Restorative Justice in the Education System

By: Sally Lee

Sally Lee — Wed, 04 May 2024 19:15:00 +0000

You sound like us! We should talk. http://www.teachersunite.org

By: Anita Wadhwa

Anita Wadhwa — Tue, 03 May 2024 18:34:00 +0000

Thanks for reading, Alan.

Regarding Zehr, what I wanted to highlight is that RJ advocates sometimes push out or ignore people of color in the field, and mindlessly lionize him. What I’ve seen is that he himself is an active proponent of racial justice.

By: Alan Murdock

Alan Murdock — Fri, 29 Apr 2024 18:09:00 +0000

I’m glad you brought up concerns about who the “leaders” of restoration are. While it is correct that none of us should follow the founders of the movement, the other thing to consider, Regarding Howard Zehr, is his discussion in Changing Lenses of his daughter’s sexual abuse. The way that Howard and the neighbor minimized the harm to the children, projecting needs onto the offender is unconscionable.
What we need to do now is to ask hard questions about whether any ideology at all should be put forth as “restorative.”
In my research into the restorative industrial complex I’ve found extensive documentation that needs of victim/survivors are obliterated under the coercive pressure of “restoration.” I’ve written an analysis of Howard’s narrative on my blog. Check it out here. https://restorativediscourse.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/unpacking-messages-about-child-sexual-abuse-documented-in-changing-lenses-by-howard-zehr/

By: Alan Murdock

Alan Murdock — Fri, 29 Apr 2024 14:47:00 +0000

You are absolutely right about the issues with RJ supporting white privilage. You write “The same power dynamics that bolster
white supremacy in the United States — and here I mean institutional
white privilege — can play out in restorative practices, a fact I am
keenly aware of as I train students to facilitate our circles.” Sujatha Baliga facilitated a s-called “restorative” circle in Florida between the parents of Anne Grosmaire, a girl abused and isolated by her boyfriend and then murdered. The Grosmaire’s were white. They were employees of the government. The father managed the finances for the state and the mother worked in state accounting. The white DA opened the door to them, giving wide latitude to the Grosmaire’s, even placing the murderer in a Catholic-run prison at the Grosmaire’s request and using nepotistic relationships between the prosecutor and jailer to set up a so-called “Restorative” circle. When compared to the treatment of Sybrina Fulton, Travon Martin’s mother, also a government employee, also in a Florida firearms murder case, but African American, the realities that RJ supports white supremacy are striking. Mrs Fulton described in testimony that her access to the DA was limited. She heard the audio recording that documented the incident in which her son died only one time and had no opportunity to converse with the DA regarding the recording before or after until testimony at trial. That’s not a difference between RJ and trial, its the difference between how white government employees are welcomed into the good-ole-boy network, rubber stamped by a disordered ideology called “restoration.” The truth is, under RJ we don’t need a community to prison pipeline. We are all already incarcerated.