Racially Sensitive ‘Restorative’ School Discipline Isn’t Behaving Very Well

Racially Sensitive ‘Restorative’ School Discipline Isn’t Behaving Very Well
People attend a spiritual service in Pine Trails Park with leaders of several faiths in tribute of the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2020. Leila Macor/AFP via Getty Images
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The fight outside North High School in Denver was about to turn more violent as one girl wrapped a bike chain around her fist to strike the other. Just before the attacker used the weapon, school staff arrived and restrained her, ending the fight but not the story.

Most high schools would have referred the chain-wielding girl to the police. But North High brought the two girls together to resolve the conflict through conversation. They discovered that a boy was playing them off each other. Feeling less hostile after figuring out the backstory, the girls did not fight again.

Vince Bielski, a former senior editor at Bloomberg, reports on the environment, clean energy, education, and immigration for RealClearInvestigations. His work has appeared in Bloomberg, Spin, Mercury News (San Jose), San Francisco Focus, and many other publications.
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