Friday, July 26, 2013

Peer Court Part 1


      End of October 2012 while sitting in my principal's office and discussing student behavior; the question was asked, "What can be done to change students' behaviors because suspensions don't work?"  As we talked about it we came to a realization, which we all know, that students will listen to other students more than they will listen to an adult.  So then the question became, "How can we get students to take more of an active leadership role in our schools discipline?"  After some discussion the idea of a Peer Court system started to be developed.  
     Our thoughts started flowing:  
  • A system where students went before a jury of their peers. 
  • The jury should be 8th Graders
  • The jury needs to be leaders but not necessarily the top students in the class 
  • There should be a faculty review board
  • The jury could apply and interview
  • the jury should hand out a restorative justice sentence not a punitive consequence
     We were excited, "How powerful this could be?" and "What a way we can change the culture of our building!".  
So we had an idea, now it was time to put it into action.........  

No comments:

Post a Comment