Finley Principal Presents Restorative Justice Program

Restorative justice involves focusing on repairing relationships, promoting accountability and fostering understanding. J. Taylor Finley Middle School Principal Traci Roethel led a presentation at Monday’s Huntington School Board meeting about how the philosophy is being used in the building to improve student life and performance.

“The purpose of the program is to hold students accountable for their actions; develop positive, supportive relationships to prevent conflicts and create a better learning environment,” Mrs. Roethel said.

The program’s focus includes:

• Understand that choices have consequences.

• Teach that consequences can be either positive or negative.

• Help students learn from mistakes and make better choices.

• Repair relationships with those affected.

• Create mutual understanding between students and staff.

The presentation highlighted the differences in purpose, focus, student experience, relationship repair, long-term impact, staff involvement and accountability between traditional in-school suspension and restorative justice.

Finley started down the road toward a restorative justice program during the 2022/23 school year. It involved discussions, training, attendance at a Long Island conference and a visit to Oceanside Middle School, which earlier successfully implemented a similar program.

A pilot program was launched at Finley last March, utilizing the strategies learned from Oceanside. “The pilot program was focused on addressing selected discipline infractions through restorative methods,” Mrs. Roethel said.

An implementation team met at Finley last June to refine the pilot. The room selected for use by the program was revamped over the summer. Full implementation of a restorative justice program at Finley began this past September.

“We officially launched the program across the school, with all staff trained and practices fully integrated into the disciplinary process,” Mrs. Roethel said.

Finley Dean Amanda Shaffer explained how the restorative justice works, from engaging parents/scheduling to a students’ independent reflection and reflection with a counselor to a learning based research project based on the offense to the student presentation of their work.

Ms. Shaffer reviewed six questions that students are asked to reflect upon:

• What happened?

• What were you thinking at the time?

• Who has been impacted by your actions? How have they been impacted?

• If this happened anywhere else, such as a public setting or outside of school, what could have happened?

• How could this has been handled differently?

• What do you think you need to do to make things right?

Examples of actual student responses (the students weren’t identified) were shared. “Why involve the whole school community? Mrs. Roethel rhetorically asked. “Because it fosters a collaborative school culture; it encourages ownership and accountability and it supports positive behavioral change,” she said.

Since September, 29 students have participated in a restorative session, including nine in September, 14 in October, 10 in November and three in December. Six students have had more than one session, but only one of them for the same offense.

The next steps at Finley include:

• Continue fostering a restorative culture at Finley Middle School.

• Encourage student and staff involvement in ongoing reflection efforts.

• Create an environment for students who are struggling emotionally to have a safe space in the building.

Trustees peppered the presenters with follow-up questions and expressed their appreciation for the work that has been done to bring the program to Finley.