Helicopters and a large police presence on Elmwood Avenue greeted parents looking for their children following a shooting and stabbing that left two people hospitalized on the grounds of McKinley High School in February.
But the violence at McKinley doesn’t tell the entire story.
In the weeks since groups like the Buffalo Public School Community Health Worker Parent Association have shared their concerns with the school board. Association President Jessica Bauer Walker said violence is a district-wide problem.
“And this is not an issue just at McKinley,” she said of incidents that go unreported. “So there's a lot of issues that are going on in quite a few of our schools and so I think it's really important to address this as a systems issue.”
Concerned parents sent a letter to Interim Superintendent Dr. Tonja Williams and Board President Lou Petrucci. They want several changes they say they have been pushing for since 2019 including following the BPS’s Code of Conduct and Wellness Policy, engaging with community groups and addressing root causes of violence.
“Sometimes we think that these issues are so big that they're insurmountable and we say it takes time but we need to set some short term targets,” Bauer Walker said.
One of those short term targets is changing the way discipline is doled out.
“The way suspension happens in Buffalo Public Schools is totally unacceptable,” Bauer Walker said. “We're expecting our kids to be at this very high standard in terms of how they behave themselves a standard that adults are not meeting and there's too many of our kids and disproportionately our kids of color and those with disabilities that are getting suspended from school.”
The letter suggests incorporating restorative practices in place of suspensions. But what exactly are restorative practices?
Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition Executive Director Dina Thompson said it’s a holistic approach
“Within the continuum of restorative practice there's restorative justice,” she said. “Restorative justice addresses when a harm has occurred either in courts, in schools or in community and harm can be anything-- from a conflict to a crime to miscommunication.”
She continued.
“We have a process that brings people who have been most impacted by that particular incident or situation and we bring them together through a dialogue process we come up with a way to address the harm that was caused and we come up with an agreement so people can move forward in a positive way.”
Thompson’s coalition currently operates in five district schools and is advocating to get into more.
School Specialist Debbie Mulhern said there is a great need to address traumas, especially in this era of COVID.
“Nobody's feeling seen or heard right now,” she said. “And the kids have been through so much. As a teacher I witnessed a lot of it you know my kids were forced into adult situations for two years and then I was suddenly like hey welcome back open to page 400.”
One way in which restorative practices helps kids feel seen and heard is through the practice of circles Mulhern explained.
“This year when I went back to school,” she said. “I set my
room up in a circle and by the second week if there was a problem or there was a confrontation or something was going on the kids would say we really need a circle today.”
Circles give the children the chance to talk about what is going on in their lives in an environment devoid of judgement and helps to build relationships and helps to break the classroom mode Thompson said is outdated.
“We have to think about how to do school differently we still have a 1965 model on how to educate young people,” she said.
Can restorative practices co-exist in an environment with an increased amount of law enforcement and School Resource Officers on campus? Thompson said the idea of restorative practices is to take non-punitive approach to discipline and school children shouldn’t feel like they are entering a prison when they go to class.
“If we're looking at data we're looking at research we know that the increase of police officers or police presence or security in school doesn't work,” she said. “Our kids are being suspended for the same behavior over and over so the underlining issue is what we're doing isn't working.”
But Thompson, Mulhern and Bauer Walker all said they are holding out hope that long term changes will be made under the leadership of Williams, who says school safety is one of her top priorities.
