James Allrich, principal of Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, MD, meets with students in the “Be Well” room.

When I became the principal of Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, MD, eight years ago, we had more than 1,000 discipline referrals. That meant an average of one referral for each of our roughly 1,000 students. Most of these referrals involved only 40 or 50 students, but I knew that number was too high, and we had to do something different.

Something else was also clear to me from the start. The underlying issues were less about student discipline and more about student-teacher relationships. Although staff and students were engaged in the activities of school, we had not established a place where students and staff felt connected. So, after feedback from staff and students that was consistent with the data, we decided to act by implementing a daily advisory period in the morning for all our students. This was a time to build relationships and it was ungraded.  

The foundation of these advisories were community circles. In a community circle, the students and staff get together to check in with each other and ask, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how are you feeling today?” or “Can you share something great that happened to you the day before or during the weekend?” These are the types of questions we use to build connection and community. The circles can also be used for academic purposes to address questions from a book, article, or other passage of text. The main purpose is to connect students to each other, connect students to staff, and—more broadly—to build our school community. Regularly incorporating community circles for less emotionally charged topics helps develop the necessary skills and resilience to effectively participate in more intense problem-solving sessions within the class. At the same time, it offers a platform for enhancing communication skills.

A Less Punitive Approach

The next step in our journey to rebuild the school community was to build on the community circles by adopting restorative circles, which was our entry to restorative justice. Restorative justice involves working together to foster the physical, social, psychological, and academic well-being of students, staff, and families through building and restoring community and practicing self-care. Specifically, when it comes to student discipline, it’s about reversing the harm that was caused as the result of some infraction or issue that took place. The traditional approach at Argyle was more punitive and rooted in punishment.

One thing we saw right away with restorative circles is that our discipline referrals dropped by half over the first year of implementation. That was a pretty big deal. But here’s the key: Because our efforts to build community had been successful, we had a community that students could connect to—and therefore restore. If that’s missing, then trying to repair the harm that a student has caused will have very little impact.

One misconception about restorative justice is that it’s just a way to let kids who get in trouble face no consequences. That’s definitely not the case. From the start, we knew we weren’t going to stop conflict or eliminate discipline problems. What restorative justice does is provide a space for conflicts to be resolved, allowing participants to learn from the conflict and learn ways to repair the harm. That conflict could be as small as two students making fun of each other or as big as bullying or a physical attack on another student.

With middle school students, we’re teaching them how to deal with conflict in ways that help them grow and learn and, most importantly, identify the harm they’re called on to repair. That’s something we had to explain to students’ families when we first moved to the restorative justice approach, and each year we need to reinforce with the new families why and how we do it.

Rebuilding Community After COVID-19

Like most schools, we had challenges with student discipline when our students returned in person after remote learning during the pandemic. We did see an uptick in discipline referrals. As a result, one thing we’ve done is to double down on some of the student mental health initiatives we had already started.

One is what we call “Wellness Wednesdays.” Students attend their regular classes, but we might have a specific wellness theme that they discuss throughout the day. If the theme is “managing your emotions,” for example, they might talk about the science of emotions during science class, and during English class they might write in their journals or have a classroom discussion about emotions and how they can affect others.

We also have a space we call our “Be Well” room. It’s one of the places where our restorative circles are held. But, more broadly, students and staff alike can come there and reset after a conflict. Or maybe they just need a break from everything else that’s happening in the building.  

As I’ve mentioned, one of our main goals is to strengthen our school community and the relationships within the school. One of the great things we’re seeing is that teachers are better at managing their classrooms because of the improved relationships. Part of that success is due to our teachers learning so much more about their students, especially through the community circles. They might discover something about a student that concerns them, and they can reach out to students’ families with information and support options. They can consult with other teachers about a student, if necessary. We also find that students are engaging with each other more because they want to connect with each other and talk.

Lessons Learned

We’ve learned a few things about implementing restorative justice at our school that might be helpful for other school leaders considering this approach. One thing we found very helpful was to create a position for a restorative justice coordinator. That person’s job isn’t just leading the restorative conversations with students, but it’s also about building the capacity of everyone in the building to do this work, including running the circles. Our teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, security staff, paraprofessionals, and office staff are also trained in restorative practices because they, too, engage with students and families.

I think this restorative approach only works if you make it part of your entire school, not just something that’s added on. As a leader, it’s important to model the use of restorative practices in your leadership position. If staff members bring an issue to me, like a challenge or a concern about something I said or how I responded to a student, I sometimes ask if we can sit in “the circle” to discuss it. The thing about the community circles is that everyone enters on equal footing, which levels the playing field. We’ve also had instances where staff members who are having challenges with each other also sit in the circle to rebuild their relationship.

The main thing to understand is that restorative justice is bigger than just looking for an alternative to suspensions and discipline referrals. It’s about changing the school climate and culture. And we do that by building community so that people feel connected to our school, and so students want to be in the space. That way, when there is a harmful action, everyone involved wants to restore the community so they can get back to a space they enjoy.

James Allrich is the principal of Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, MD, and the 2023 Maryland Principal of the Year.