http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day

jean klavosky

As seen on K12.WA.US

              Restorative justice is a revolutionary idea and approach to discipline. Restorative justice is based on four key aspects:
Respect: for everyone by listening and learning to value the opinion of others and not just your own. 
Responsibility: owning up to your own actions rather than blaming the next person.
Relationship-building: working through a structured, supportive process that aims to solve the problem and allows young people to remain in mainstream education.
Relationship-repairing: developing the skills within the school community so that students have the necessary skills to identify solutions and ensure behaviors don't become a habit
        It focuses on mediation and agreement rather than punishment.Normally in schools who don't practice restorative justice, students who get into or cause violent or potentially violent confrontations are quickly suspended with out discussion. So these children are banned from school for a few days then come back to school more upset than they were before and wind up doing the same thing that got them suspended the first time.

 Restorative Justice is key to better schools

  Children from about ages 5-18 has to endure about 6-7 hours a day in school. Many kids leave a not so happy home and enter a building where they are being told what to do and rules which they have to follow or they'll be reprimanded. Many children, predominantly black high school students and other minorities don't come from a wealthy or even a middle-class background. Many of which don't necessarily value their education. There are also few who get very little sleep due to many responsibilities at the home and then have to attend school the next day which brings more hardship to their way. Our young individuals have been losing sight in what's right and they're levels of interest in making a better life for themselves due to their home environment. A lot of them have nobody to talk to, cry to, or just have anyone in general, whose willing to listen and understand their story.