Restorative Justice in Everyday School Practices: A Panel Discussion

Over the past few months, we have been learning together about Restorative Justice in Education and ways in which RJE can disrupt the pipelines to prison that exist for many of our children and youth. In the first two webinars, we learned from students who are facilitating restorative justice practices in their schools in Houston and in Fairfax county. In our third webinar, we learned from Dorothy Vaandering and Brenda Morrison about the importance of building relational pedagogy and ways in which healthy relationships in schools can prevent disruptive behaviors and bring about school and classroom climates that promote learning and transformation. Our fourth webinar focused on pipelines to prison, what perpetuates those pipelines, and how RJE can begin to disrupt them. It’s been a great series and we’re grateful for our guests who have taught us so much about RJE.

In the final webinar in this series, we will be hosting a panel discussion with four restorative justice practitioners. Ann Schumacher, from Michigan will talk about her work facilitating circles with high school girls; Carolyn Boyes-Watson and Estelle Archibold will share about their work in the Boston Public Schools; and Christina Parker will discuss her work preparing teachers to be restorative justice educators in Toronto. In addition to the discussions about their work, there will be ample time for them to answer questions about the nuts and bolts of bringing RJ into educational settings. Each of these panelists brings a wealth of experience with restorative justice in schools. We are excited to host this discussion as part of the Coming to the Table Webinar series and look forward to learning from our panelists.