Leaders of Change: Students Empowered through Restorative Justice Fellowship
Restorative circles are nothing new in the Syracuse City School District. For years, staff have been using them as a way of mediating conflicts and building positive school culture.What IS new this year? Students serving in the mediator role!
Thanks to a Restorative Justice Fellowship, the first cohort of student leaders completed their training in restorative practices this past spring. This summer, a second cohort of students came together for a three-day training. Additional sessions will be introduced in the 2024-25 school year, with the goal of building a districtwide cohort of student restorative justice advocates, who can help change the culture in their schools from the inside out.
SCSD Director of Restorative Discipline Rich Richardson said that while many district staff are familiar with Restorative Justice terms and are working on a top-down approach, a partnership with community organization The Restorative Center has helped them see the importance of a grassroots effort – from the ground up.
“We’re really working to develop students who can be leaders in restorative justice among their peers and spread those best practices through their schools from the student perspective,” Mr. Richarson shared. “Students want to be the leaders in their school communities – so we reached out to our building leaders and Deans of Students and asked them to help us tap kids that would be great leaders in this work.”
Over a three or four day training, students earned a $1,000 stipend for their participation – while they learned the foundations of restorative justice and how to be effective circle keepers. The student leaders learned that circles should be used to create community, developing the structure of leading a circle, and how to facilitate one.
Incoming ITC freshman Sanai Everson first applied to become a Restorative Justice Fellow last spring, when she was an 8th grader at Brighton Academy. This summer, she continued her Fellowship, acting as a peer leader for the second cohort of Fellows. Sanai considers herself a natural mediator, recalling phone calls with friends in which she has tried to help settle conflicts. When a school staff member shared that there would be an opportunity for students to receive training in restorative practices, she jumped at the chance.
“Restorative justice is used as a way of solving problems in the community,” Sanai shared. “My community struggles a lot with violence, and I’ve always wanted to find a way to solve some of these issues, without it being violent.”
Student trainings include participating in a restorative circle and then discussions about how to plan circles, and even scenarios in which students would act out conflicts – like a student and teacher conflicted over attendance issues, a freshman student’s first day of school, and more.
“The most important thing I learned was the importance of neutrality,” Sanai explained. “Both sides are equally important and should be listened to. Even if you agree with one side more, you have to at least hear out the other side. This is important in life in general, but especially in restorative justice! You have to remember that you might hear something that you didn’t think of – you might gain a new perspective. These are ultimately skills that will help me moving forward in life!”
Sanai said that she ultimately plans to attend college to major in political science, with an interest in becoming a Congressional representative one day.
“Especially as we get older, we need to have the independence and the capacities to solve problems on our own,” she shared. “These are life skills. We need to learn how to solve problems, talk, listen, and help our community. When we become adults, we’ll have these skills already – we won’t need to learn them then. I know so many adults who don’t know how to converse – they’ll just attack someone if they disagree. Doing this restorative justice work has made me realize that we aren’t really all that different. We’re all people.”
Brian Bourdierd is a Trainer and Circle Keeper with the Restorative Center. He has been one of the professionals training our SCSD student fellows through this partnership. After his first experience in restorative circles in his freshman year of high school, he was hooked – and has gone on to forge a career in the field, working to expose more students to the community-changing benefits of restorative justice.
“We are always hearing that students are the leaders of the future,” he shared. “But we have so much to learn from our young people, and we have the ability to make them the leaders of today! Restorative Justice gives them a space to express themselves, be heard, and participate in their community. We focus on the things that they would like to address in their community through this process… it’s an amazing opportunity, and I really want more youth to have the opportunity to experience it!”
Through the Restorative Justice Fellowship this summer, student leaders looked at the issues of poverty and homelessness, physical violence in schools, litter, and more – and examined potential solutions to help address them.
“Circles are great because if you’re shy, they help you crack open your shell,” Nottingham incoming freshman Amari Smith shared. “You can’t hide in a circle – everyone is offered a turn to engage. Through this program, I really feel like I can make a positive change in my community.”
The first cohorts of student leaders have already begun making a difference: they helped lead SCSD staff in restorative circles during their summer professional development! Any student in grades 8-12 who is interested in applying to become a Restorative Justice Fellow is encouraged to apply by visiting https://trcteam.formstack.com/forms/registration_for_scsd_cohort_3.
