“Kids Would Bully Me. I Would Always Go Into The Library. And Do Really Nothing.”

Making Restorative Justice Inclusive for Students with Disabilities

The use of restorative justice programs in school settings is relatively new. According to an article in Edutopia published in 2015, “Restorative justice empowers students to resolve conflicts on their own and in small groups, and it’s a growing practice at schools around the country. Essentially, the idea is to bring students together in peer-mediated small groups to talk, ask questions, and air their grievances.” 

Intentions are good, but as practiced, these approaches sometimes leave out students who have disabilities, IEPs and/or 504 plans. Certainly, there is a need for new approaches. Substantial research over the past decade strongly suggests so-called “zero tolerance” discipline policies, which tend to favor exclusionary punishments like suspensions, are largely ineffective in reducing student misbehavior and disproportionately meted out to students of color and those with disabilities. But as disability advocates know, even with the best intentions one size does not fit all and disabled students, especially, need restorative justice programs to be more individualized in order to be truly effective.

A 2018 study published by the Rand Corporation reveals that, despite laudable goals, researchers did not see fewer suspensions for special education students or for those involved in violent altercations. Evidence suggests that in ways schools are doing a good job, but in other ways, they’re not. 

Regardless, we need to discuss – and implement – ways that advocates, schools, parents and students can work together to improve restorative justice programs.

In May 2019, DREDF interviewed Joaquin, 13, and his mother, Olga – who have served through our Parent Training and Information Center funded by the US Department of Education –
to get their thoughts on ways we can work together to make restorative justice programs more inclusive of disabled students. 

DREDF: Could you tell us a little bit about your experience as a middle schooler dealing with discipline, and what you’ve encountered. Ways that you’ve felt like this restorative justice program didn’t always work as fairly as it could for you, as it did for other students at the school.

Joaquin: Hi, my name is Joaquin. I’m 13. My experiences with my disabilities, when I was in sixth grade, and I used a lot of the accommodations on my IEP.

DREDF: Can you tell us what those were?

Joaquin: Things like going outside, having fewer problems on quizzes, and like, going into other rooms, for S back testing, things like that. Many times, I… felt like I was somebody different, and not really a part of the classroom… Not really learning with the class. In sixth grade I had to go to another room I think for reading. I asked my mom if I could stay inside my regular classroom to read books, and do our homework inside there. But my IEP, and my accommodations, said I had to go to a different room. 

DREDF: And how did that feel?

Joaquin: It felt really bad, and, a little bit disappointing. It just it tore me a little bit, but —

DREDF: And that’s at a time when you’re trying everything you can to like fit in?

Joaquin: Yes. At the time I was trying to make some friends during the sixth grade. I didn’t have that many friends in elementary. I was mostly a lonely kid. A lot of kids would bully me. I would always go into the library, and do really nothing.

DREDF: Sounds like it was painful for you.

Joaquin: Yeah. And it made me feel like I was a different kind of person, and I wasn’t socializing with other people like I should have been when I was in sixth grade.

DREDF: So with the benefit of hindsight, of being able to look back a little bit, can you offer any ideas or thoughts you might have on what might have worked better or what you would have liked?

Joaquin: I wanted to be part of my class and not be going into another separate room, and being made fun of because of it. That’s hard in the sixth grade… to go to another room just to do my English work.

DREDF: Did that create some discipline issues? You got into it with some kids who would make fun of you or bully you, yes?

Joaquin: Yeah.

DREDF: Do you remember what kids would yell at you about that?

Joaquin: That, I was not smart.

DREDF: What did they say?

Joaquin: When I was in elementary school, this happened a lot. They would say, “Hey, what’s six times three or a 100 plus a 100?” And it would take me awhile to count up all the numbers, figure out the answer, and — it was really painful. It hurt, and they always would bully me about that. I tried getting over it. But it would just… happen.

DREDF: Joaquin, if you could say one thing, if you could offer one thing to anybody who’s in a situation similar to yours. If they could hear you right now, and you had an opportunity to speak directly them. Maybe another young man who is maybe a little younger, what would you say? What would you want them to know?

Joaquin: Just to keep your head up. Because if you think something is bad with you or that there’s something wrong with you, you’re okay just the way you are. You’re still like a real human being. If you have autism or if you’re in a wheelchair, you’re still a human being. Don’t let anybody treat you, horribly or terrible. 

DREDF: So talk a little bit about, you talked a little bit about how some of those things that you wish were available that aren’t available at school. Talk about what that experience has been like in terms of singing opera, for example. What’s that been like for you?

Joaquin: Singing opera? Singing opera is a fun experience. We get to go to different countries. Last year we went to Italy.

DREDF: It’s a good place to go for opera!

Joaquin: Yeah, it is!  At 12 years old, it was just a very exciting time for me. It was really fun. I got to see a lot of things. I got to learn a lot of new things too. I really love music. It helps me. Sometimes there’s music for your emotions. Like if you’re feeling mad, play some sort of mad music. If you’re feeling sad, you play some sort of sound of sad music. Music sometimes helps me, explain my emotions. How I feel. What it is like. Some kids will make fun of the kids that are in Special Ed. They’ll say things like, “Hey, why are you so stupid?” Or “you’re the R word, and you don’t know anything. You’re not smart, you’re not supposed to be here. I hear that a lot, and, you know, I’ll speak up a lot of times, because it’s really wrong. To treat someone like that, is really unfair. Just imagine, if you were in their shoes, and people were saying that to you. It would feel you would feel really, really bad, and I would not want them to feel bad or anything.

DREDF: So what would you say to teachers or administrators or somebody in a position of power in your school about those kids, about those students who are doing the bullying? What would you like to see them do?

Joaquin: I would want them to know that the kids who are in Special Ed, they know a lot. They’re smart. They know how to do things. They’re not stupid, the way that people say they are. They’re really smart. They’re really powerful, and the type of the community that they have. They have lots of friends too. Just last week we had a play. One of my peers was part of the Special Ed program. He played a really big part of our play, and he did such an amazing job. Now, everybody’s telling him that he did an amazing job, because he really did. He’s a really incredible person to talk to, and to be friends with. People like him who have autism and stuff, it’s just, it’s hurtful, you know? 

Olga (Joaquin’s Mother): It has to be a part of the culture. Sixth grade Joaquin is not the same eighth grade Joaquin, although we have our other challenges, but social media has become a beast in all of the other levels of what’s going on.

DREDF: What do you mean?

Olga: Now it’s on social media. Whether it’s on Instagram or their Snapchat, and this isn’t something that’s happening to Joaquin, but in the friends that he has that are also African American and Latino, what they’ve shared between them is the shaming part of I have to also leave the classroom to go to that room to be able to get out. And the parents that I’ve been able to have been blessed to be able to meet that interact with my son, their sons interact with my son, we’ve all kind of share the same stories of how our kids responded to it. And some couldn’t come out of it. Like, there’s a few kids that they just needed to leave the district altogether. And it’s a shame, because the district does not celebrate that some kids deficits there’s greatness in that. You know, there is truly greatness.  But if the district does not consider families with children who have disabilities as true stakeholders and allies, then we will always be at a deficit for families whose children want to be a part of the community. And that’s important for any child to thrive, and be vibrant.

Olga: There has to be more value in being able to have these uncomfortable conversations as educators, as para educators. There has to be more value in having these uncomfortable conversations, and that districts have to be able to school superintendents, principals can’t define discipline as being very arbitrary. People have to think out of the box how discipline is being given, if any discipline, right? Visiting. DREDA is a great example of this is what you have to do, and write a report, and you guys have to work on a project together. But the districts are too scared of what are you putting your child through? Right. And I would just encourage families that in order for you to be in a real, a true stakeholder, and an advocate, you have to make sure that you’re supporting organizations like DREDA in order to continue to work. And a lot of families don’t have a voice at the school district level. They continue to be given an arm’s length of information, and hardly any resolution for their child, and the needs of their child. So that would be my two cents.

DREDF: If you really think about what to restore means, I think we have to take seriously that restoring mean sometimes winding yourself back up as a culture, and as a school community to make sure that we’re not trying to fix things after the fact. That, in fact, we build things from the ground up in a way everybody has a place from day one, and knows it. Kids will say things that are inappropriate or whatever. But I think we give them the message that somehow that’s okay when we build a system of separation institutionally. And then we wonder why when the kids that go to a different room, get targeted. That’s on us. That’s not on our kids. And so restorative justice has to include the adults, and the systems, and not just the individual children.

Olga: Exactly. 

DREDF: So, would it be fair to say it’s not an individual problem? That it is more of a structural problem in terms of how the system is set up? Joaquin, what would you add that we haven’t talked about yet?

Joaquin: Some people feel they can’t really do anything, and feel down a lot. When I was little I didn’t really have any friends, and look at me now I have a lot of friends, and I do a lot of after school activities, and I thank my mom for that… And, you know, and I love my mom. You know, she’s always been a big supporter. My dad as well too. They’ve always been there for me. You know, from my happiest times to my sadness times, and I love him too. But, it would also be nice if they didn’t have to come marching up to school. 

DREDF: What would you like the school to do differently?

Joaquin: Honestly, just give people opportunities to explain themselves, and with discipline they should change it up when you’re in forum for people who have disabilities, and —

DREDF: Change it up? What do you mean?

Joaquin: Like if a kid that had to go to that yard room, and the mother if she could would probably rather take the kid out of the school for the whole entire year. It’s set up like suspending him. Keep on calling his mother. Almost getting the mother fired. They should try helping the child, and try progressing with him. Make him feel equal to other people. Not that he’s just only in one room with other people that are like him, and not feeling social with other people, so that people are making fun of him.

DREDF: One last question, Joaquin, if you could give a message to yourself two years ago, what would you tell them?

Joaquin: That I love him. And don’t let anybody tell you what you can and what you can’t do. And that I will always be there for him, and that you’re powerful. Yeah, that’s it.

DREDF:  Which is one really simple restorative justice technique that doesn’t get done enough. One week when you’re upset, you’re all choked up. Sometimes you just need some space before you ready to process. And for some kids with disabilities, it might be that simple: A little more space. It’s a good example. Instead, in that moment it’s like, “no, you’ve got to fill out the form right now if you want to go back to class, and they’re so choked up, you can’t even straight.”

OLGA: How about just letting somebody feel that for a minute? Can you just like be upset, and say, I feel like punching somebody? I know the school district is completely against this, but it works. How can we build on our community if we’re not teaching our children how to be accountable for their actions as well? But you’ve got to do that in ways that work.

---

EDITOR’S NOTE: While every attempt has been made to reproduce questions and answers in their entirety, responses have been edited with approval, to meet space and clarity considerations. Interview was conducted by Cheryl Theis, DREDF Education Advocate and DREDF Director of Communications, Lawrence Carter-Long.