Miami youth to RALLY for Restorative Justice at School Police Hdq re: Student arrests : Miami IMC

The youth of Power U Center have been demanding the Miami Dade Schools to implement a program of Restorative Justice in the schools.

Restorative Justice is a form of problem and issue solving that provides everyone involved a voice, engaging the community in order to address the root of the problem through dialogue.

Punishment, especially in the form of suspension and arrest has been proven
to be ineffective and actually harmful, with high rates of recidivism among
youthful offenders, and increased rates of dropouts amongst students.
Restorative Justice has been utilized in school districts such as Chicago
and Minnesota with amazing results, at times reducing suspensions from
30-50%.

The youth of Power U Center have been demanding the Miami Dade Schools to
implement a program of Restorative Justice in the schools, starting with
Booker T. Washington Senior High as a pilot program. They have been upset
with the treatment of students in school as realized last week with the
situation at Edison. The school Police promised to have a feasibility study
for restorative justice done by January's School Board meeting.

At February's meeting School Police Chief Gerald Darling assured us that the
report was done and we would receive it shortly. It has now been 3 weeks
and there is no evidence that a report has even been started. Power U youth
member Travae Brown says "We are tired of waiting for this report and being
disrespected by the School Police. The violence that happened at Miami
Edison shows exactly why we need Restorative Justice in our schools instead
of police who don't respect young people, especially young Black people."

It is essential that Restorative Justice be implemented in the schools in
order to decrease schools' dependence on arrests and suspensions as a way of
solving issues. Restorative Justice is a form of problem and issue solving
that provides everyone involved a voice, engaging the community in order to
address the root of the problem through dialogue.

Punishment, especially in the form of suspension and arrest has been proven to be ineffective and actually harmful, with high rates of recidivism among youthful offenders, and increased rates of dropouts amongst students. Restorative Justice has been utilized in school districts such as Chicago and Minnesota with amazing results, at times reducing suspensions from 30-50%.

The arrests and beatings that occurred at Miami Edison on Friday were a tragic and extreme example of a systemic problem that is occurring everyday in Miami Public Schools, and that is exactly what the students were protesting. Black students are particularly impacted by harsh discipline policies and the heavy dependence on police to deal with issues in the schools, as they are arrested at extremely disproportionate rates. Edison Senior Chrisford Green states: "We didn't organize this protest because of just one incident. We just got fed up. That kind of stuff happens all the time here."

Power U Center and Miami Edison Youth will be joined by students from the University of Miami and by CopWatch as well as other allies.

Activist group (Power U) might be trying to help itself
BY FRED GRIMM (Miami Herald Columnist)

It could be that the rallying cry needed work. "Restorative justice feasibility study now!" aren't words to ignite a multitude.

But for some reason, Wednesday's demonstration of Miami Edison High School students was notably shy of actual Miami Edison High School students.

The demonstrators gathered just three blocks east of Edison High School to protest the arrests of 19 students last Thursday during a campus melee. Out of perhaps 35 protesters, more than half were from Power U, the Overtown-based social activists. The turnout didn't do much to counter charges from school officials that Power U was churning student acrimony for its own ends.

STREET THEATER
When it came time for a bit of street theater, it was Power U organizer Travae Brown who led a handful of protesters to the entrance of the Miami-Dade school police headquarters. With TV crews and newspaper photographers crowded behind him in the doorway, Brown demanded the school cops turn over that elusive restorative justice feasibility study.
The school cops, of course, had no restorative justice feasibility study handy. I don't think Brown was surprised by the news.

Brown, 19, is not a student at Miami Edison High School. Not even a grad. But Power U has been the organizing force behind the student protests since last week's arrests. Power U had been best known, previously, as an activist group mostly concerned with affordable housing and gentrification issues. Their demonstrators came to Wednesday's rally in green T-shirts emblazoned with "Our land. Our people. Our community."

STUDENT DEMANDS
Best I could tell, the handful of actual Edison students at Wednesday's gatherings mostly wanted their principal fired or their assistant principal jailed -- simple, unlikely stuff you'd expect from disaffected high schoolers.
But a few months ago, Power U demanded that the school district adopt a program using student peers to oversee student discipline. The district promised to deliver a restorative justice feasibility study.

District spokesman John Shuster said Wednesday the now-infamous study was not quite complete. But the mass arrests last Thursday gave Power U an opportunity to rev up its new pet issue. (Power U's former cause, gentrification, may have crashed along with the housing market.)

FRAGILE ENVIRONMENT
The problem here is that Power U has insinuated itself into a fragile environment. Edison, 90 percent black, mostly Haitian, with daunting language and cultural problems, has long been one of South Florida's most troubled schools. But after five consecutive "F" school ratings, Edison students rallied to a "D" last year. It was, for this school, something of a triumph.

The student disaffection, exacerbated by Power U, comes at a particularly inopportune time. FCATs start Monday. Edison ninth-grader Marklinda Joseph told me that there was talk Wednesday of students boycotting the tests. "I actually think we should take them but . . ."

Power U director Denise Perry said that her group was only interested in protecting minority students from roughshod treatment by the school district. District officials, of course, don't think much of Power U. "It's pretty obvious that they're taking advantage of the situation to further their own cause," Shuster said.

At the demonstration, Brown tried, futilely, to lead the crowd in a feasibility study chant. Power U either needs a catchier slogan. Or a better cause.

I read your column and I believe your points were missing some key issues.Where was your understanding of the history of standardized testing, police violence against youth, or cultural understanding of the community. Your perspective was interesting yet your analysis was not very deep. As a white male I assume it is difficult to step away from privilege and understand the issues here from the perspective of young people, black people, and poor people. I believe that the time Crew and company spent discussing the book about Cuba in the schools library's was more thoughtful than the time spent for the students at Edison after an unexpected tragic experience. I don't understand Why you spend no space addressing what kind of emotional, educational, and social impact this has had on the Edison students.

Social justice groups work to hold systems accountable to the people. Without this mechanism issues get swept under the carpet. Advocates, organizers and activists have been responsible for winning employee benefits, working conditions, stopping child labor, desegregation of schools, domestic violence laws, civil rights and the list goes on. There must be checks and balances which is democracy.

I hope you read the letter to the Herald written by an Edison teacher(Scott Miller) so you would understand what is all at stake. These students represent the crossroads of the problems that are impacting Miami-Dade County public education (race, age, power). This teacher witnessed the student protest and the reaction of the administration and police. The teacher also acknowledged that no one is dealing with the situation including Rudy Crew who has brushed this off as if it was a little incident and school back to normal.

Maybe we should look deeper, why is the FCAT more important than the students’ access to address the immediate, the emotional, and the systemic about their school environment. Standardized testing has been protested across the country even in Miami by teachers, community activists, parents and students. This stifling testing regimen is being used to claim whether students and teachers are doing their job. These tests have taken away from schools more than they have delivered. Now as a way to distract the community from what is really wrong here (police violence, child abuse, oppression) and get folks to think that a school rating from a racist exam is more important!

Restorative Justice is a tool that has been used for years throughout indigenous cultures to get to the root of the problems and solve issues. If people really listened to the students message they would understand that the brave action these students took last week wasn’t due to an isolated incident but rather a build up of unresolved problems that don’t just exist in Edison but throughout the school system. Restorative Justice is a much needed tool in MDCPS to allow student full participation in their schools rather than the punitive reactionary systems that are in place now. Finally, did you consider child abuse on AP Perez? No matter the situation if your child was handled with force with anger would you want that person transferred to a new job or taken out of the system?

Denise Perry

Director of Power U Center

As a teacher at Miami Edison Senior High School for the past four years, I have had many difficult and challenging days. But never have I felt as low and helpless as I did Friday. I was shocked to see students whose safety is entrusted to me being pushed back by police in riot gear and, in some cases, thrown to the ground. Seeing students crying, traumatized by what they had seen, while more police arrived with dogs, hurt me profoundly.

Contrary to what some may expect, the students arrested were, for the most part, not troublemakers. No weapons were found. A review of their academic records may surprise others.

At Edison we have been under unbelievable pressure to continue our gains on the FCAT. This year we have had many visitors who have come to see the "Edison Miracle," including Gov. Crist.

Some of the students handcuffed in the back of police cruisers were the same ones who were asked to dress up and greet our distinguished guests. Keep in mind that pep rallies, student clubs, dances and other social activities have been cut back or replaced with rigorous academic scheduling and rallies for the FCAT.

As a witness to the chaos that engulfed our school, I am thankful that nobody was seriously injured or killed. A thorough investigation of this travesty and the events leading up to it is necessary. But if we are to move forward and save our school, we must stop and listen to our children. As African-American History Month has given way to "FCAT Preparation Month," how ironic that our students, however misguided, had to give us a lesson in what happens when you replace imagination and vision with objective, measurable benchmarks.