CURRENT News

Old rules, new document: Student Bill of Rights
​BY CAROLINE BATTEN 

"....I want both sides to understand what's expected of each other"

THE DEPRESSING  TRUTH: TEEN MENTAL HEALTH 
By Blaze Wang

It’s four in the morning, and throughout the house, the sound of a teenager having a mental breakdown breaks the silence...

freshmen give the basketball team a boost​ 
​BY SAM BARTLETT

“[The veterans] are giving us a warm welcome...they’re just guiding us”... ​

FROM ISS TO RPC: RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MAKES ITS WAY TO DPS
BY OYINDA AJASA

Imagine being in a basement for seven hours, in a room with no windows and minimal social interaction from your peers. While for some this reality is unknown, that's not the case for everyone. This room, formerly known as ISS, is a common punishment here at DSA.

In-school suspension, also known as ISS, is a form of punishment used to discipline cheating, cursing, yelling, skipping, among other minor infractions, as listed in the DSA Code of Conduct. Recently, Durham Public Schools changed the name of ISS to RPC, which stands for Restorative Practice Center. Along with this change, out-of-school suspension, formerly known as OSS, has been changed to ALC, which stands for Alternative Learning Center. 
​“WHEN I WAS IN ISS, I WAS JUST PLACED THERE. NO ONE TALKED TO ME ABOUT WHAT I DID, AND WHY IT WAS WRONG. I WISH THAT AN ADMINISTRATOR WOULD HAVE TOOK THE TIME, TO COMMUNICATE MY WRONGDOING TO ME, BUT THAT NEVER HAPPENED".... 
Durham Public Schools implemented the change in all middle schools and high schools at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. This change stems from the idea of restorative practice, which addresses students' conflicts by repairing their relationships with those that were involved in the conflict instead of punishing them.

“Restorative practices provide students with opportunities to discuss and mediate the causes of their in-school consequence while serving their consequence. DPS wants to reduce behaviors that lead to out-of-school suspensions and repeat in-school suspensions for students across the district.  The restorative practice model is grounded in research that has proven effective in other districts,” Patrick Smith, Assistant Principal, stated. 

Other districts and schools around the U.S.  have found great improvement in implementing restorative justice discipline policy in their schools. After fours years of experimenting with restorative practices, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, of North Carolina, adopted the model for all of its schools. McDougle Middle School, a school in the district, saw major discipline referrals drop nearly 75% the year it started restorative practices techniques.
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“When I was in ISS, I was just placed there. No one talked to me about what I did, and why it was wrong. I wish that an administrator would have took the time, to communicate my wrongdoing to me, but that never happened. I feel good, to know that students now will be able to get that opportunity,” Antonio Farrington, junior, commented. 

RPC was just implemented in the beginning of the school year, but administrators have reported seeing changes with the new system, already. But like with anything new, there are some kinks that still need to be worked out. 

“The only drawback to the change that we have noticed is that students and parents aren’t always familiar with the new acronyms (i.e. RPC instead of ISS), so an additional explanation must be given to clarify the nature of the consequence,” Smith clarified. 

​It looks like RPC is here to stay, and DPS along with DSA hopes to see continued change with this new model of punishment. By the year 2023, DPS hopes to have suspensions at 4%, a change from the 8.44% of suspensions that were calculated at the end of the 2016-2017 school year.
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“We hope to continue seeing students making better choices about their education and learning the appropriate skills that help them follow the Student Code of Conduct.  As a result, we would like to see fewer and fewer students with repeat infractions that cause them to receive multiple assignments to RPC or multiple referrals to ALCs,” Smith concluded.
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