Restorative Justice Presentation Given to School Board, Essay Award Winners Recognized at Jan. 22 Meeting

A special presentation featuring MacDonald Middle School (MMS) administrators focusing on alternative solutions to disciplinary issues was the focal point of the Jan. 22 East Lansing Board of Education meeting.

Additionally, students were honored for their success in a writing competition honoring and reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy. Other topics of discussion included racial diversity among teaching faculty, the continued success of the East Lansing High School boys basketball team and ongoing active-shooter situational training for school faculty.

Restorative Justice Presentation

MMS Principal Amy Martin and Associate Principal John Atkinson gave a special presentation on the school’s restorative justice program. This program, having now been implemented for nine years, seeks to find alternative solutions to conflicts between students at school. The program aims to issue fewer suspensions and punitive measures, while achieving greater rates of long-term conflict resolution. 

“(With traditional discipline) you ask what rule was broken, you ask who broke the rule… the authority makes the decision on the consequences for the aggressor, but the victim was largely out of the process… Restorative justice is much different,” Atkinson said. 

Atkinson described how in restorative justice, they gather all the parties of a conflict at school, including the perpetrator(s), victim(s) and an intermediary staff member to meet in a circle and have a discussion. This discussion is guided by a three-stage process in which they determine what happened, who has been affected and how. Any misconduct may then be addressed in a way that focuses on healing harm, as opposed to punishment. 

“Out of my nine years, this has been my best year,” Martin said.

“We saved 90 days of suspension for a student,” Atkinson said. “That’s the impact that (restorative justice) has.”

Martin and Atkinson stressed the degree to which they feel restorative justice has been a success and has become a fully integrated part of the MMS culture. 

“We all do restorative justice every day,” Martin said. 

The speakers cited a poll of over 30 students involved in restorative justice circles, in which 93% said they felt the problem they had was fixed, 100% felt understood and respected, 100% believed that restorative justice could be used to solve other problems and 97% felt restorative justice could help their academic outcomes. 

The MMS administrators also stressed that they seek to find a balance between traditional punitive techniques and restorative justice, giving the example of how they deal with suspensions. Like in many other schools, a fight breaking out is cause for a three-day suspension. At MMS this is done using an in-school suspension. On the first day following the incident, a restorative justice meeting is held between the children who fought. Afterward, they are allowed to sit in a designated area within the school and do school work. If this all goes smoothly, the children are then dismissed from their suspension after only two days. 

By utilizing restorative justice techniques, the speakers stressed that the situation can be dealt with in a way that is necessarily punitive, minimally harmful to academic achievement and beneficial to the overall resolution of the issue. 

“It shows that you’ve really engaged with the needs of the students and the community,” Board President Chris Martin said.

Board recognizes MLK Commission essay award winners.

Several students from East Lansing High School were recognized at the meeting for winning awards at the 39th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Mid-Michigan Day of Celebration held  Jan. 15. 

Among the students honored was Khaled Taifour, who was one of two Mark S. McDaniel Legacy Scholarship winners. This award is a $5,000 college scholarship granted to graduating high school seniors of the Greater Lansing Area who display excellence in essay writing and academic achievement. Other award winners were Elaina Andrews and Gabrielle Ferguson, who won second and third place respectively in the 9th-11th grade essay writing contest.

Student representative shouts out ELHS boys basketball team.

The student representative report, given by Student Representative Jennifer Rairigh, opened with a message of congratulations to the East Lansing High School boys basketball team for maintaining its undefeated season, standing at 11-0 on the date of the meeting.

Several upcoming student events were also mentioned. These events included the Multicultural Assembly to be held Friday, Feb. 2, the winter formal dance Feb. 10 and the spring musical “Mama Mia” to be performed March 8, 9, 15, 16 and 17. Lastly, Rairigh encouraged the school board to consider giving a snow day on Tuesday.

“When I spoke to the students today about what they would like me to talk to the school board about today, basically every single person said to ask… for a snow day, which I told them I cannot influence, but I am a woman of the people,” Rairigh said. 

While no snow day was given, this comment was received with loud laughter by members of the board and audience. 

Concerns about diversity raised during public comment.

Joshua Hewitt, who has two children in Glencairn Elementary School, stepped to the podium during public comment to express concern over the lack of racial diversity among the teaching staff in ELPS. Specifically, he mentioned the lack of Black teachers in the school district.

“I actually went to morning celebration at Glencairn Elementary today, and I know it’s totally anecdotal, but I didn’t see a single Black teacher,” Hewitt said.

He then asked two questions to the board.

“I wanted to know if there’s any specific goal for the school district to hire more Black teachers?” Hewitt asked. “My second question is, does this school district actually have a mission statement specific to DEI?”

The board informed Hewitt that during public comment questions are not answered. But because of his prior communication with administration, they may communicate with him privately in coming days.

School staff underwent emergency training.

It was announced that ELPS administration, the district mental health coordinator and behavior systems specialist underwent active shooter scenario training on Jan. 22. This allowed administrators to see what this training would look like for staff when implemented throughout the school district more broadly and to give feedback to trainers for how to individualize training to the district. 

Looking ahead

The next school board meeting will take place Monday, Feb. 5. A recording of the Jan. 22 meeting can be found here.