Some schools saw an increase in violent incidents this year, but not always in the predictable places

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Some schools saw an increase in violent incidents this year, but not always in the predictable places

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-This piece discusses how OSI’s partnership with Baltimore City Schools to integrate restorative practices has resulted in fewer suspensions and arrests and contains a quote from OSI’s Karren Webber-

By Liz Bowie

Art class had just started when the seventh grader girl began to worry. As she saw a group of eighth- graders filing in to her class, she sensed trouble was about to begin.

 

“I only knew something was going to happen,” said the girl, who asked not to be identified. Within seconds, one of the girls grabbed the seventh-grader’s hair and yanked her to the floor. A cellphone video of the incident at Stemmers Run Middle School shows two girls leaning over the girl, punching and kicking her as a teacher tries to pull one of the attackers away.

 

In a 2018 partnership with the Open Society Institute, 15 schools were chosen to be intensive learning sites for restorative practices, with new lesson plans that embedded the practices in the school culture. The institute’s Karen Webber said the continuation of the practice during the pandemic may have helped students feel connected to their schools and reduced bad behaviors when they returned to in-person classes.

 

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