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Schools asked to try alternative discipline

Group wants kids to remain in class

By Sean Rose

A group of religious organizations and concerned citizens will meet with local education and court officials Monday night to promote alternative discipline methods as a way to stop “the school to prison pipeline.”

Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together, which will hold the meeting at the Kentucky International Convention Center, plans to push for restorative justice, a form of discipline that seeks to avoid removing problem students from regular classrooms and schools.

The program, which is in use in New Zealand, requires that offenders face their victims, who would address the offending students directly before other punishment may be handed out.

Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church and co-chair of the group's crime and violence issues committee, said the method is designed to make the students understand their mistakes and restore them to the classroom.

“Punishment is retaliatory,” he said in an e- mail. “Restorative justice transforms the offense by making the offender face the harm they've done and trust they've broken.”

What might be most important is that the process keeps youths out of juvenile detention centers, which many times can lead to a life of law breaking, Phelps said.

At the 7 p.m. meeting, the citizens group will ask officials in schools and the courts to commit to restorative methods as another option in disciplining students.

Jefferson District Judges Angela McCormick Bisig, David Holton and Annette Karem will attend the meeting along with Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell, and all have been studying and promoting a restorative justice pilot program for the county.

Although nothing is definite, Bisig said she hopes to have a pilot program in place by the fall.

She said she became interested in restorative justice after hearing about successes in New Zealand.

That country shares some similarities to Kentucky, such as population size and a disproportionate amount of minority incarceration, Bisig said.

After implementing restorative justice practices, New Zealand was able to close 18 juvenile detention facilities and now holds juvenile court only two days a week because of a decrease in repeat offenses, she said.

Bisig favors implementing a “family- centered conference approach,” where offender and victim would meet under controlled circumstances with support groups present in an attempt to make perpetrators understand the harm caused by their actions. Current court proceedings keep the two parties separate.

Though some may view the approach as “soft” on crime, it's actually the opposite and allows the victim to have more control over any punishment, Bisig said.

“I don't think it's a stand in a circle ‘kumbaya' way of dealing with criminal justice,” Bisig said. “It's a way that allows the victim to be much more a part of what needs to happen.

“It's almost harder when you have to face up to what you did and understand it,” she said.

Maurice Risner, director of student relations and safety for Jefferson County Public Schools, also will be at the meeting, representing Superintendent Sheldon Berman, who will be at a school board meeting that night.