Giving Compass' Take:

• A student died at Urban Assembly Wildlife, a high school in New York City, after a push for restorative justice resulted in a breakdown of order. 

• How can schools reduce harsh disciplinary action, particularly for students of color, without being overly-permissive? Can policies be structured to incentivize fewer suspensions without encouraging schools to ignore bad behavior? 

• The RAND Corporation offers insights into improving school safety in the United States.

On Sept. 27, 2017, someone in history class threw a paper ball at Abel Cedeno, an 18-year-old sophomore who had been bullied for his sexuality.

The profanity-laced challenge and invitation to violence that followed were par for the course at the school. The one thing different that day: Cedeno pulled out a switchblade. He stabbed Matthew McCree, and when Ariane Laboy came to McCree’s aid, Cedeno turned the blade on him. Laboy fell into a coma for two days. When he awoke, he asked for an egg roll and news of his best friend.

McCree was dead.

Students and teachers said they wanted to set the record straight on McCree as well as on Urban Assembly Wildlife, a once safe and supportive school that fell into chaos as new administrators implemented a supposedly more positive approach to school discipline.

At UA Wildlife, meaningful consequences for misbehavior were eliminated, alternative approaches failed, and administrators responded to a rising tide of disorder and violence by sweeping the evidence under the rug, students and teachers said. If they had prioritized student safety over statistics, McCree’s teachers believe, he would still be alive.

The easiest way to get discipline numbers down is to not enforce discipline. And then, on the rare occasion you have no other choice, take discipline off the books. Students and teachers said administrators did just this, simply telling students to go home for a few days.

Read the full article about poorly implemented restorative justice by Max Eden at The 74.