By Mary O’KEEFE

Glendale Unified School District has recently come under fire with the handling of the Hoover High School brawl in October among students. The district did not respond quickly to the incident and, as the administration paused, social media took the story and ran with it.

“I learned – big time; my entire team has learned,” said Superintendent Dr. Winfred Roberson of how the incident was handled regarding the dissemination of public information. “We never really got out in front of the communication and, in this age of spin, the story ran so fast; we were still trying to get all the details.”

What the District has done since the incident is a systematic outreach to parents, students and the community.

Reaching out first to the Hoover High and Toll Middle school communities was the first phase of confronting the issue of the brawl. This outreach also had a rocky start but, as the administration and the school board began opening up about problems at the school and what could be done, the public and students began to help find solutions.

“[Solutions] are not going to happen in one assembly, you have to have a one-on-one [conversation],” Roberson said.

The best way the district has found to get to the core of the conflict issues, not just at one high school but at all schools, is the use of Restorative Circles.

“The end game of [Restorative Circles] is to build community. We believe if students are able to empathize and believe [each other] are part of the school community … you are part of who I am, so I am not going to harm you,” he said.

Restorative Circles is a practice used by many schools in several districts. It applies a simple, even old-fashioned, theory: talking to one and other.

In this era of regurgitating every thought through social media, there can be a momentary lapse in judgment that equals a long term resentment from others.

Roberson gave an example of a student who may have said something mean about another student when they were in seventh grade. The memory of those words can grow and cause issues later in high school. The Restorative Circles can get down deep into those issues.

“The Circles take place in the classroom where 25 students can come together. They sit down and get a chance to learn about one another,” Roberson said. “The teachers lead these discussions.”

Teachers who lead have gone through the extensive training in restorative practices. Roberson said this training is time-consuming and that not all of the teachers, administrators and counselors have been trained yet, but that is his goal.

“Our vision is that all GUSD teachers would eventually be qualified and trained to hold a circle in their class when they need to. The first step is capacity building. We [presently] only have a few people in the district who are trained,” he said.

There are a few teachers at Hoover along with Principal Dr. Brook Reynolds and some staff at Valley View Elementary who are trained. Roberson said he has been at Valley View and witnessed how well the Restorative Circles work. The PTA is also on-board with members already trained in Restorative Circles.

Restorative Circles primarily make certain students understand they are in a safe place and can be honest with each other. Restorative Circles encourage empathy through familiarity of each other’s life. Going back to his original example of one student saying something hurtful to another student years ago, Roberson said they can find that this child has been carrying around this burden of hurt for a long time.

“We are talking about the mental health of students,” Roberson said.

The Hoover students involved in the fight have taken part in Restorative Circles and have signed contracts on peaceful resolutions with each other. This, too, is part of the Circles.

Roberson said the Circles are not just for one or even two sessions, but typically take time to peel away, layer by layer, the issues kids face.

“These [feelings] didn’t happen overnight and they aren’t going away in one session,” he said. “We are in the initial stages of training and bringing about changes, but this work is our platform. It is going to be our roadmap to be able to build the positive relationships with our students to build that community.”

He said in the end the Circles will create opportunities for students to break down barriers by giving them the skills to deal with conflicts.

One of the other outreach programs focuses on parents. After the Hoover incident, the district invited parents to come to listening meetings. This is time when, instead of a representative from the district holding a meeting and talking to the audience about what they will be doing to help, district representatives listen to parents tell them what the district needs to do to help. The district is also reaching out to the parents and the community with cluster meetings that will be held during open house events at high schools.

Roberson said what happened at Hoover is not isolated to that one high school, that nationally tensions are high with public discourse and violence like what took place at the synagogue in Pennsylvania.

“There is no speech that will fix this. It is work, and good work that will take time,” he said. “These are historical issues, so we have a plan to keep our campuses safe, inclusive for all students and respectful.”

  Mary Okeefe