04-05-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ann Coglianese, Guidance Counselor at Rise Up Academy, stated, We are doing restorative justice as best we can. What we are working on are trauma suspensions. Let's face it, schools are ground zero for all of this stuff. We have circles every Friday and Monday and our students just have a conversation with the teacher about anything, and a lot of the times things come out. This way, teachers are able to identify the students who are in trauma. Circle could be five minutes, or they could go longer. We are having a big tri-corporation at Clay High School on June 26, 2017. We have a speaker, actually the woman who wrote the book Circle Processes, is coming to South Bend. This event is free and Rise Up is hosting it. We are hoping to integrate this, not just into our schools, but from kindergarten to high school. Because when we get these kids at Rise Up, these are the kids the other schools have not been successful with. We've had girls that got in a knock-down, drag-out fight, both of these girls are seniors, and we find out this issue was something from the seventh grade. The circle process is working well. Marsha Heck, IUSB, stated, Mr. Hunt said it is a strategy and not a program. So what we're doing with circle process, is it is a process, not a program. We are working with many others to take a proposal to the school board in May to model what has already been done and setting that up in the entire district. Circle process is the action of restorative justice. Restorative justice is a process of dealing with problems and things that go wrong. Circles process is one of many approaches to achieve restorative justice. Think about a time when someone harmed you. What did you want in that moment to make it right? The first reaction is to get even. But, does that help in the long run? When we punish people and send them away,they leave the community and then there are these problems that remain. This is a community approach to speak truth in love,hoping to stop the cycle of violence. My students have been volunteering where they help participate in the circles process. My hope for South Bend is that we coin a term called `Circle for Peace Zones.' First, a couple schools would do it,then soon the whole district would be a part of it. Ellyn Stecker, 1036 N.Niles Ave., stated, I'm here to represent the Michiana Peace and Justice Coalition. We formed from a group of people who are opposed to the use of war to resolve conflict. We see at the national level how that happens. Our goal is to educate ourselves, our representatives, and also our community about the cost of that war to the community. We do this in a variety of ways and we work with a variety of groups. I do have information I can leave here, and we also have a website. Councilmember Davis asked Ms. Stecker to email fellow council members information. With no further business to discuss, Committee Chair Williams-Preston adjourned the Community Relations Committee meeting at 7:13 p.m. R ectfully b Reg na Williams-Preston, Chairperson 6