High School Restorative Justice Truancy Project
On Milwaukee’s South side Pulaski High School began preparations for a restorative justice approach to issues of truancy in the fall of 2006. Training was provided in March of 2007 by David Lerman of the DA’s office and Joe Kubisiak of Community Partners to a group from student government at Pulaski. The teens learned restorative justice techniques that enabled them to participate in Truancy Conferences and represent their peers.
An initial conference was held with a young man named ‘David.’ David had always been an excellent student, but in 2006 he began to miss school more and more and by the time of the conference he had only a 13% attendance rate. The conference included a school social worker, two of our trained students, community members and one of David’s favorite teachers. Each person talked about how David’s behavior affected them personally. David was sarcastic at first but opened up to the group, providing explanations for his behavior as the conference progressed. Four goals were set regarding his attendance, grades, extra curricular activities and home life. When the group left the room, one of the student representatives was having a conversation with David in the hallway. David told him “I think this is really going to help me out.” Even after several months the school social worker was able to report that David was maintaining perfect attendance and steadily improving his grades.
Since that time, several more truancy conferences have been facilitated by Safe & Sound Community Partners at Pulaski and they will continue to be held bi-weekly for the 2007-08 school year. While many positive outcomes have resulted, we have had to re-evaluate the process of selecting truants for the conference and preparation beforehand of all the participants. A group, including several students, was assembled to discuss the issues and suggest some alternatives.
Only a limited number of conferences can be held, but students are influenced by their peers and we expect that changing the behavior a few individuals will also influence others. Furthermore, this process helps peers and staff build a greater understanding of why some students are truant. Ultimately we hope to create a safe environment for students, peers and community members to learn about how issues affect each other and provide a model that can reduce truancy in Milwaukee.
