April 2016

1

San Bernardino

Restorative Youth

Court

Director

Ray Culberson

SBRYC-Hearing Panel

Team

Mikki Cichocki

Rebecca Harper

Patty Taylor

Dr. Henry Yzaguirre

PRAXIS IS:

Hope in Action

34°N 117°W are the geo-

graphical coordinates of

San Bernardino

SBCUSD

Department of Youth Services Ray Culberson, Director

Volume 3, Issue 2

Phone: 909-880-6812

Fax: 909-880-6822

Website: www.sbcusd.com/youthservices

1535 W. Highland Ave

San Bernardino, CA 92411

SBCUSD

Department of Youth Services

Ray Culberson, Director

PRAXIS 34 o N 117 o W

San Bernardino Restorative Youth Court Hope In Action

The time is now ! Youth Services has instituted the San Bernardino Restorative Youth Court (SBRYC) to sup-port and hold students account-able for wrongdoing . Students from every high school in our district have participated in the program. Students enjoy the experience and many continue to come back to volunteer and help fellow peers who have a need to repair relationships that may have been severed due to a wrongdoing. Youth court is held in a profes-sional setting at the Inland Ca-reer Education Center in the Vista Room on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 to 7 pm.

An adult judge and peer jury format is used. The adult judge is usually a representative from a local police agency, an attor-ney from the private sector, or from the San Bernardino Dis-trict Attorney’s or Public De-fender’s Office. The jury is made up of student volunteers. There are roles for youth such as mentors, bailiffs, and court clerks. Students who have been referred to youth court are known as respondents. The respondent faces a jury of his/her peers who begin asking questions that are designed to bring to the surface the impact the misconduct has had on oth-ers. The questions are also designed to help the jury un-cover the strengths of the re-spondent and other pertinent

District Attorney Don Pezza posing with members from SBCUSD Explorer pro-gram and student jurors prior to beginning a court case.

April 2016

2

information that will help them devise a plan of rehabilitation during delib-eration. A mandatory com-ponent of the respondent’s rehabilitation plan is that he/she is required to come back to court and serve as a juror. This is intentional and serves to transform the respondents’ role from “troublemaker” into be-coming a resource for his fellow peers and commu-nity. SBRYC gives educators a much needed option to help students learn from their mistakes within an educational context that incorporates many facets of social emotional learn-ing. SBRYC is an im-portant component of a disciplinary system that is based on restorative jus-tice principles. There is no doubt that

maintaining a safe and

orderly school climate is

conducive to providing the

right conditions for stu-

dents to learn. Since the

early 1990s, the methods

used in our district to

achieve this school cli-

mate have been rooted

within a philosophy of zero

tolerance.

Zero tolerance policies tend

to be punitive in nature and

commonly require the swift

removal of a student from

school. This reactionary re-

sponse to student miscon-

duct is frequently applied

without considering any miti-

gating circumstances or the

situational context in which

it has occurred. Of more

concern, it has been used

as a tool for punishing stu-

dent misconduct void of any

educational benefit for the

student to begin developing

a positive identity about

himself and their school

community. Solid educa-

tional research has shown

the unintended conse-

quences that punitive and

exclusionary discipline has

on black and Latino stu-

dents. We have a moral

obligation to grasp the no-

tion that all students matter

and none should be made

disposable or criminalized

because they make a mis-

take.

“Students who experi-

ence out-of-school sus-

pension and expulsion

are as much as 10 times

more likely to ultimate-

ly drop out of high

school than are those

who do not.” (2013)

San Bernardino City Mayor Carey Davis talks to student volun-teers. Youth Court Judge Denise Diggs is adjacent to the mayor.

April 2016

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San Bernardino Restora-tive Youth Court is our response to help students stay in school while hold-ing them accountable for their actions in a person-alized supportive environ-ment. Just like negative peer pressure can mani-fest in delinquency, posi-tive peer pressure can be leveraged to help stu-dents begin to develop a positive identity and rein-tegrate them back into the school setting rather than exclude them. Students are required to repair the relationships their miscon-duct has had on the school community. This new model of school dis-

cipline looks at how student misconduct causes harm to others and their relationships. This results in obliga-tions that need to be addressed by the re-spondent. Student ju-rors develop a plan for the respondent to meet those obligations. This plan may call for the respondent to do com-munity service or make a written or verbal apol-ogy. SBRYC seeks to help wrongdoers realize what needs to be done to make things right.

Student jurors being sworn by court clerk.

“Youth court is about finding out what these kids are really doing and seeing if their fellow peers can help. I have been a volunteer from the very start . I person-ally can say that kids who go through youth court walk out with a different atti-tude. I believe that SBRYC can help improve our community.” - Lilyanna Montoya 10th Middle College Student

April 2016

4

The Administrative Hearing Panel Members, under the

guidance of the Department of Youth Services, serve multi-

ple roles in ensuring equitable practices and fair applica-

tion of education code related to student discipline. Youth

Services serves as a community hub for parent and stu-

dent voice to be heard and valued. Our guiding principles

of equity, student advocacy, and forging positive relation-

ships with families focus our efforts in cultivating school

connectedness for all students.

It’s relationships, not programs that change children…Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they have a sense of belonging to a

caring community.

SBCUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION Mrs. Margaret Hill , President

Mrs Abigail Medina, Vice President

Dr. Barbara Flores

Mr. Michael J. Gallo

Mrs. Gwendolyn Rogers

Mr. Danny Tillman

Dr. Scott Wyatt

SUPERINTENDENT’S CABINET Dale Marsden, Ed.D., Superintendent

Harold J. Vollkommer, Ed.D., Deputy Superintendent

Kennon Mitchell, Ph.D. Assistant Superintendent

Student Services

Perry Wiseman, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent

Human Resources Division

John Peukert, Assistant Superintendent

Facilities/Operations Division

Matilde “Matty” Zamora, Ed.D., Assistant

Superintendent

Educational Services Division

Jayne Christakos,

Chief Business & Financial Officer

Joe Paulino,

District Chief of Police

Linda Bardere, APR Director, Communications/

Community Relations