{"id":814,"date":"2007-11-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chisnell.www216-119-142-248.a2hosted.com\/chizblog\/?p=814"},"modified":"2017-08-06T05:34:50","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T05:34:50","slug":"students-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/students-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Earlier this summer I offered a proposal for a number of changes to enrich ROHS school climate.\u00a0\u00a0Here is one in summary:<\/p>\n

Activate a student court to address non-disciplinary issues between students.\u00a0\u00a0There are several models to build from.\u00a0\u00a0Recommend: three justices and two secretaries per case to hold cases during lunch periods. Verdicts would be in the form of restitution (reparative and restorative justice), service, opinions, or referrals to administration. Contempt would become a disciplinary issue.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought I would develop this a bit today and offer us all a chance to discuss and develop it into a formal proposal if it has enough support.<\/p>\n

Goals and Rationale<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"Student courts are hardly new.\u00a0\u00a0They have existed at the college level for decades, less frequently at high schools.\u00a0\u00a0The goal is simple: help students set up a common expectation for community behavior in larger schools through discussion and judicial debate.\u00a0\u00a0And one thing ROHS needs, I believe, is a common understanding of acceptability.<\/p>\n

Student behavior codes can be achieved in two ways.\u00a0The first is traditional:\u00a0\u00a0administrators can design and implement a code of conduct, and teachers and administrators can be tasked to enforce it.\u00a0\u00a0The second is for such a code to be developed from the community of students itself, working in collaboration with the teacher\/administrative community. The first method almost always leads to an adversarial relationship:\u00a0\u00a0students are disempowered and told to follow the rules.<\/p>\n

Jurisdiction<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Some guidelines are in order, however.\u00a0\u00a0First, some disciplinary issues are clearly outside the purview of student responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0Criminal cases, for instance, should remain with the police component.\u00a0\u00a0Issues of physical fights and the like should, perhaps, be left with administrators.\u00a0\u00a0Even so, there are myriad disputes between students which 1) go to administrators to resolve which ends us escalating the problem with punishments; 2) never go to administrators yet are important and unresolved conflicts which could use some arbitration.<\/p>\n

The student court would hear all cases where all parties have agreed to comply by its rulings in advance.\u00a0\u00a0Contempt of court or refusal to comply by its rulings would mean a referral to administration, itself a punishable offense.\u00a0\u00a0We would have to revise the current Student Code of Conduct to reflect this.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, if a student elects to have her case heard by the court, a later refusal to abide by its ruling is itself punishable.<\/p>\n

Further, the types of arbitration and resolution possibilities should be limited to a philosophy which promotes a \"\"better environment for students.\u00a0\u00a0I foresee a few possibilities:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Actual \u201ctrials\u201d with a limited number of jurors for issues where guilt is uncertain;<\/li>\n
  2. Hearings and arbitrations with three students justices for minor matters;<\/li>\n
  3. Advisory Panel discussions to determine general policy and building management recommendations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Consequences and Rulings<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Finally, the types of consequences a student court would be empowered to implement would be limited.<\/p>\n

    Justice can be forward-looking or backward-looking.\u00a0That is, we can work to make things better in the future, or work to punish what was done in the past.\u00a0Vengeful of Punitive styles of justice are generally backward-looking and I cannot see how using them would create a credible reputation for the court.\u00a0Therefore I think the best types of justice for a student court would be restorative, reparative, rehabilitative, or even working to seek forgiveness.<\/p>\n

    A student court would more likely seek to have a destroyed bulletin board put back in order by the vandal than simply suspend him (reparative over punitive).\u00a0\u00a0A student court would more likely recommend a mini-course in sexual harassment for a student rather than give detention (rehabilitative over punitive). A student court would more likely see feuding friends reconciled through an objective and fair arbitration than ignore the problem or impose a detention (reparative vs. . . . irrelevant).<\/p>\n

    The Student Court could offer four kinds of rulings, I think:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Restitution rulings (reparative or restorative justice)<\/li>\n
    2. Service requirements (reparative or rehabilitative justice)<\/li>\n
    3. Opinions\u2014which would be passed along to appropriate administrators around issues of building policy and the like.\u00a0These would be advisory, though, as other stakeholders (teachers, parents, and insurance agents!) would have a say as well.<\/li>\n
    4. Referrals to Administration \u2013 where the case escalates into matters beyond its jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Next Steps<\/strong><\/h4>\n

      Other issues would need to be discussed.\u00a0\u00a0Training and elections of justices; roles of advisors; appeals processes; court proceedings; teaching the student body about it; locations and times of the court, alignment with administration and police, counselors, and teachers; and the inevitable question of whether staff could be called before it (this does not happen even in college student courts because there are legal implications of it).<\/p>\n

      However, I believe that a student court could be one (and only one) method of building a community of expected behaviors for students different from impositions of policies.\u00a0\u00a0Imagine opinions published on cell phone use, arbitration around pre-Powderpuff pranks and vandalism, or rulings on harassment.<\/p>\n

      If there is enough interest, maybe someone will put it forth as a formal proposal. . . .<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Earlier this summer I offered a proposal for a number of changes to enrich ROHS school climate.\u00a0\u00a0Here is one in summary: Activate a student court to address non-disciplinary issues between students.\u00a0\u00a0There are several models to build from.\u00a0\u00a0Recommend: three justices and two secretaries per case to hold cases during lunch periods. Verdicts would be in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,262],"tags":[407,408,331],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-education","tag-court","tag-proposal","tag-rohs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/gavel.jpg?fit=360%2C235&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":825,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/rohs-course-catalog-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":814,"position":0},"title":"ROHS Course Catalog – 2009","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Jan 26","format":false,"excerpt":"Given a chance to re-create the Course Catalog for 2009-2010, and just in time for scheduling day, I offer the following new course proposals for you. Have an idea I forgot? Add it! \u00a0 Philosophy: Ethics Students will spend the semester pondering and arguing the contemporary dilemmas of 21st\u00a0century America,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/01\/edcamp-header.jpg?fit=448%2C334&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":804,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/unique\/","url_meta":{"origin":814,"position":1},"title":"Unique","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Sep 9","format":false,"excerpt":"I was as surprised as the next guy at seeing a too-familiar phrase on the entryway to ROHS this fall.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, there\u2019s still a little sting we feel when we see something which feels uniquely Kimball or uniquely Dondero: three years later, and we still step carefully around each other\u2019s loyalties\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/030209_0334_MeasuringSe8.jpg?fit=367%2C276&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/dress-codes-and-racial-insensitivity\/","url_meta":{"origin":814,"position":2},"title":"Dress Codes and Racial Insensitivity","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2007 Sep 9","format":false,"excerpt":"Kevin\u2019s point surprised me, but it shouldn\u2019t have.\u00a0\u00a0The drawing ROHS had distributed to students showing unacceptable school attire had another quality beyond the arrows pointing to bare midriffs and sagging pants: both of the illustrated students were\u2014arguably\u2014black. 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As a premiere, it was well done.\u00a0Administration, school board, teachers, parents, students, former Dondero teachers, even the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/media-center.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":799,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/to-our-contract-negotiators\/","url_meta":{"origin":814,"position":4},"title":"To Our Contract Negotiators","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2007 Sep 2","format":false,"excerpt":"The impasse between the Royal Oak Educational Association and the school district has gone on long enough. One of the most recent splits in more than seventeen months of negotiations centers around the issue of class size. The ROEA proposes the status quo of smaller class sizes for writing courses,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/swift.jpg?fit=253%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":827,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/measuring-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":814,"position":5},"title":"Measuring Service","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Mar 2","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wondering what I would write of Galveston five months after Hurricane Ike. Even now, thousands are without homes, many still without water, and electricity is just now starting to be restored on Bolivar peninsula. 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