@ Lehman College, Bronx New York
Registration / .
Explore the incorporation of transformative practices and restorative justice into higher education, educator preparation and continuation programs, K12 schools, community organizations, parent organizations and community agencies. Includes building positive peer culture, supporting student academic, artistic, social and emotional development, replacing punishment models with restorative models of intervention to address harm and conflict, supporting educators’ emotional and social asset development andbuilding positive relationships with families and communities
Keynote Speaker – Jamaal A. Bowman
The Heart of Restorative Justice
Teachers Unite member Jamaal A. Bowman, Founding Principal,Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School
Who gets suspended from our schools? Poor black and Latino boys—and girls too—beginning as young as three years old in disproportionate rates all over the country. Who are the unarmed men that are disproportionately killed by the police? Black and Latino youth. Black lives matter not only in the streets when dealing with law enforcement, but in our schools as well.
We must remember that we are dealing with children. Not animals and thugs as the media too often depicts black and Latino youth to be. Our children our children carry trauma from growing up in neighborhoods with concentrated povertyand limited resources, and they carry that trauma with them into our schools. We can’t continue to respond bycriminalizing their behavior.
In my school, I have a social worker and guidance counselor on staff to support our restorative justice model and the social emotional needs of our students. We work very hard to build excellent relationships with parents and provide wrap around services to families. If there is an issue we can’t handle, we find a community resource that can.
Further, the city and teacher training programs need to do more to prepare our teachers to meet the social emotional needs of our students and we need an influx of guidance counselors and social workers and restorative justice coordinators into our system. School staff can begin right now by taking ownership. Start by reading Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children, and listen to Tupac’s Keep Your Head Up. Working to close the class and social gaps takes lifelong learning and understanding. I look forward to our continued work in thisarea.
A few of the participating organizations and facilitators:
Teachers Unite
National School Climate Center
Morningside Center for Social Responsibility
Black Girls Matter / Aesthetic Education and Community Building
Community Connections for Youth
Queens Community House
Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute
Participatory Action Research Center for Education Organizing
Saner and Safer Schools - International Institute for Restorative Justice
Experience an Open Space Gatheringto generate ideas and share information about incorporating Transformative Practices and Restorative Justice and into mainstream institutions in a coordinate and cooperative manner
For additional information contact David C Fletcher, 718-960-8440,