Schools See Suspensions Decline with ‘Restorative Discipline’

Contacts: Barb Blazej, (207) 581-2625; Jon Moody, (207) 465-2167; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756

ORONO — After implementing a new philosophical approach to discipline about 3 years ago, teachers and administrators at Messalonskee Middle School in Oakland watched disciplinary problems decline and student morale rise.

The new approach called restorative discipline encourages students who misbehave to take responsibility for it and learn how their misdeeds may have affected others.

Better understanding of bad behavior, and the underlying reasons for it, helps students practice better self-control and learn accountability, whereas traditional punishment-based discipline does little to influence better behavior, says assistant principal Jon Moody.

Principles of restorative discipline include communication, relationship-building, accountability and reconciliation, explains Barb Blazej of the University of Maine Peace and Reconciliation Studies Program and a coordinator of the Restorative School Practices Collaborative of Maine.

Within a year of implementing the restorative discipline model, the 600-student Messalonskee school saw a 32 percent drop in detentions, a 73 percent drop in suspensions and a 34 percent drop in serious offenses.

“Our success was not simply limited to the reduction we saw in discipline infractions,” Moody says, “but also in the increased discussions that occurred through the restorative process. I think the students like it because they have a voice, and I think the teachers like it because it has increased accountability.”

The restorative approach encourages students to account for their actions and find ways to make things right with those they have harmed, Blazej says.

Other schools have taken notice.

“I’ve been contacted by a lot of people,” Moody says. “I think a lot of schools are in a position of trying to find more genuine ways to reach students. This is a nice movement back toward the whole child. I think the most positive result is we’re having an awful lot more conversations with kids about everything.”

Three other neighboring junior high schools have since approached Moody to learn more about it. The Restorative School Practices Collaborative of Maine has now trained hundreds of schoolteachers, administrators and guidance counselors in the restorative approach at workshops and institutes around the state, according to Blazej, who organizes and leads many of those efforts. Blazej says the next staff-training workshops are scheduled Oct. 23 at UMaine and Nov. 5 in Lewiston.

The restorative discipline process also raises social and academic expectations, she says.

“There’s a growing body of scientific brain research that shows that if students experience stress and incivility, they’re not going to learn well,” she says.

A UMaine Today magazine article has additional information about Messalonskee’s experience with restorative discipline.