Our very own Erin Levitas Initiative team member at UM Law, Barbara Sugarman Grochal, Director of School Conflict Resolution Education Programs at the Center for Dispute Resolution (C-Drum) is serving as the Chair of the Maryland Commission on School to Prison Pipeline and Restorative Practices.
In certain school disciplinary practices, a child who is exploring behaviors and gets into trouble (say for slapping a peer’s backside) might lose the opportunity to learn and truly understand why their action was wrong, how they can rectify it in the immediate situation, and correct it in the future. A child who gets sent to the principal’s office, then expelled, then sent home where child care might not be available will find themselves more likely to get into trouble and ultimately end up in juvie. Restorative Practices are being used by the Erin Levitas Initiative to give children a chance to understand their actions and work with peers to rectify behaviors with the goal of successfully reducing repeated actions of sexual violence in the future. Learn more about the School to Prison Pipeline in this report by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy for Open Society Institute-Baltimore (pg 9).