Letter: ARPS Restorative Justice Program Creates a Healthy School Climate. Don’t Eliminate It!

The following letter was sent to the Interim School Superintendent, incoming School Superintendent, Regional School Committee, Town Manager, and Town Council on May 25, 2024. 

The proposed elimination of the Restorative Justice (RJ) Program in the Amherst Regional Public Schools (ARPS) – especially at the high school where the program is well developed and well grounded in established best practices – is a painfully short-sighted decision. RJ was originally adopted within ARPS to reduce the number of suspensions that differentially impacted students of color. Its elimination will be especially harmful for students of color who tend to be treated more harshly in the conventional disciplinary system.

RJ teaches students to be problem solvers while building a campus community in which students support each other and take responsibility for their own actions while contributing to a community of care. It is a productive and progressive alternative to punishment and has a profound impact on both academic and social growth.

Interim Superintendent Doug Slaughter’s suggestion that the already overworked deans can incorporate RJ into the work that they are already doing indicates that he lacks understanding of how RJ works or of the difficulties faced by the folks trying to help students navigate the challenges of adolescence in these crazy times. RJ requires intensive work with students to help them learn to communicate effectively with each other and craft solutions to the challenges that they face.  

RJ is about changing the culture of the entire school system. It takes years to implement it effectively. You can’t cut it out and then easily reincorporate it at some point in the future. A lot of investment goes into creating a new campus climate and all that has been done to that end over the last four years will be discarded with its elimination.  The costs to the school from eliminating RJ will be considerably greater than the relatively small savings to be gained by eliminating the program and its director’s salary.

We should not be in the position where we are pitting the jobs of educators against each other to determine who should be cut and who should be retained. The money needed to preserve all 20 student-facing positions that are now on the chopping block is out there in cash reserves, in potential contributions from Amherst College, in the debt service the town is paying for the library borrowing and in other creative possibilities. It seems that the cash savings that will be gained are quite small compared to the costs to the education of our children and we should be crafting creative strategies to avoid further degradation of our schools.  

I have seen RJ in action at the high school. It provides a prodigious bang for the buck, and has helped to support itself through the successful pursuit of grants. The program has  taken on a leadership role in the commonwealth by offering workshops in the practice of RJ for Amherst teachers and those at other schools. It has imparted concrete, valuable social skills to its participants and has begun a shift to a more compassionate and community oriented climate within the building. 

I encourage Amherst residents to look into how this program enhances learning within ARPS and to write to Interim Superintendent Slaughter to demand that he retain the program and its director.

Read More
What is Restorative Justice for Young People?
Restorative Justice: Teaching Youth to Repair and Restore
What Do Restorative Practices Look LIke in Schools?
Restorative Justice Gives Our Children Dignity in US Schools

Art Keene is a resident of District 3, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at UMass, and the Managing Editor of the Amherst Indy. His four children are graduates of Amherst Regional High School. At UMass he co-founded and co-directed two civic leadership programs, The UMass Alliance for Community Transformation (UACT) and the Community Scholars Program. He was head coach of the ARHS girls cross country team for 17 years.