Bullying-Related Lawsuits May Be What Finally Ends Restorative-Only Discipline
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses how lawsuits from families of bullying victims may force schools to move beyond restorative-only approaches that fail to protect students.
Key Takeaways
- Lawsuits are forcing accountability - When restorative approaches fail to stop bullying and students are harmed, families are turning to the courts
- Restorative practices alone are insufficient for serious cases - Talking through conflicts doesn't protect victims from ongoing violence
- Schools face growing legal liability - Districts that rely solely on restorative approaches may be exposing themselves to significant legal risk
Transcript
Will bullying lawsuits be what ultimately puts an end to restorative practice in schools?
The Washington Post had a big article today on how many students' parents are suing school districts over bullying-related student unaliving incidents.
And there have been over 200 of them in the past decade.
And I think this is going to be a big factor, not the only factor, but a big factor in helping districts wake up and realize that restorative practice is not working.
It is not keeping students safe.
The other big factor, and we'll come back to that Washington Post article in just a minute, the other big factor that I think is going to be a wake-up call for districts is staff resignations.
And if you have quit your job, or if you ultimately do quit your job over safety and behavior issues that the district is not addressing because of restorative practice, please say so.
Please let someone know, let your district know, tell people that that is why you are leaving, because that is the only thing that is going to help districts in conjunction with lawsuits That's one of the only things that is going to help make the change that needs to happen, the change back to progressive discipline and consequences.
But on this bullying lawsuit issue, I shared a couple weeks ago a settlement in California, a $27 million settlement over the death of a student who was actually killed by bullies.
Now, that's a little bit different, and students unaliving themselves is a little bit harder to prove, and experts say you can't really say that anything caused a student to do that.
You can't say bullying is the cause.
But it's pretty obvious in a lot of cases that it was a major contributing factor.
And districts are liable.
There have been settlements and lawsuits with verdicts up to $9 million.
And I think that kind of thing is going to continue.
And here's why.
We have lots and lots of procedures and reporting requirements in place for bullying.
And we have for a very long time.
So in a lot of cases, the parents have tons and tons of documentation.
They have receipts specifying what happened and what they asked for and what the school and district did or did not do.
So in a lot of cases, their case is very strong, very compelling.
And I think that's why we're going to continue to see these settlements and these civil suits with these huge payouts in bullying related wrongful death cases.
And it's my hope that we get the clue quickly, that we don't take a decade to undo the damage that has been done and unwind the unsuccessful changes that have been made.
And I said earlier this week in my big video on restorative practice with the magazine in it, that it's dead as a doornail.
It's not dead in the sense that all districts have realized it's not working.
Like I think the writing is on the wall, but this is a train that is going to be very difficult to stop.
It has a lot of momentum.
A lot of people said, hey, I'm actually at a restorative practice training this week.
So we've got some work to do to put a stop to this nonsense, but let me know what you think.