Throughout much of the history of schools in America, corporal punishment, suspension, and expulsion have been the primary means of controlling students who act inappropriately or even violently. But many argue that a punitive-based system, while temporarily restoring order, does nothing to address the underlying causes of misbehavior. Nor does it require offenders to truly reckon with the damage they’ve done to others.
In recent years, the conversation around school discipline has shifted from the punitive-based approach to an admittedly more complex, holistic approach known as restorative justice (RJ) or restorative practices (RP). Using carefully facilitated conversations, students, teachers, and administrators work together to solve behavior problems in schools. Suspensions or expulsions may still occur, but usually as a last resort, not first.
