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Zero-tolerance policies in urban America

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Zero-tolerance policies in urban America

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Content Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America
Earl Barksdale King, DSW, MS
Doctoral Capstone Project
Doctor of Social Work
Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
University of Southern California
December 2020
Dedication
My Capstone dedication is to Mr. John Barksdale and Mrs. Mildred Barksdale King beloved
parents, who always were a source of inspiration and encouragement. Moreover, providing
innovative solutions for me to speak power to truth as "I" continue to move forward and
undertake educational achievement regardless of the struggles of racial inequities in the face of
any eventualities of life with zeal, enthusiasm, and fear of God.
AND
To the most "Loved and Cherished" persons in my life, my wife, Mrs. Darryll Smith King, and
my son Mr. Earl Barksdale King II, have been a guiding light in my destiny. Especially during
the challenges that crossed our path climbing-up the mountain. However, now we can all see
clearly and stay focused on standing on top of the mountain. To God, be the Glory.
[Luke 12:48]
"For unto whomsoever, much is given, of him shall be much required."
Acknowledgments
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

My doctoral journey has been a road worth traveling. I know what commitment and
sacrifices mean when you dedicate yourself to a goal that seems like a rainbow. However, I am
grateful for the support and contributions I received from everyone on this journey. This rainbow
made a difference in the way I see the world. To the King, Barksdale, Richardson, and Denham
family, especially my brother John Jr., sister Trustee Liz, and niece Chere'se, thank you for your
encouragement and steadfast love! To my father and mother and law the late Ozzie E. Smith and
Ernestine Smith, my Pastor Rev. Dr. Ozzie E. Smith Jr., and the Smith family, thanks for your
sister Darryll, known as Niecy; she is my bread and butter!
I want to acknowledge Thornton Township High Schools District 205, Ms. Nina Graham,
Board of Education President, Superintendent Dr. Nathaniel Cunningham Jr., and Assistant
Superintendent Dr. Jerry B. Doss, for their support in my educational pursuit. To Cook County
Juvenile Court, Judge Michael Stuttley, and Dr. Jayne R. Goode, Associate Professor of
Governors State University, I cannot thank both of you enough for your contribution to my
educational achievement.
A special thanks to Dr. Devon Brooks, thanks for opening a path of scholarly academic
learning for me and my esteemed colleagues and classmates of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck
School of Social Work; it has been an incredible educational journey.
Finally, as I turn the page and enter a new chapter in my life, my most humble respect
goes to my University of Southern California (USC) Professors, who guided me through some
struggles to excellence and inspired me to use my critical thinking skills. Dr. Devon Brooks, Dr.
Eugenia Weiss, Dr. Murail Nair, Attorney Professor, Maurice Hudson. And Co-Chair, Dr. Nadia
Islam, Doctor of Social Work and the 12 Grand Challenges.
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………….4
11. Conceptional Framework Problem Statement National……………………………5-6
111. Chicago………………………………………………………………………………......7
1V. Social Problem Impact…………………………………………………………………8-9
V. Policy and Practice Policy………………………………………………………………9-10
V1. Impact of Policies and Practices on Youth………………………………………….11-12
V11. Empirical evidence………………………………………………………………….12-13
V111. Conceptual Framework and Theory of Change…………………………………13-16
1X. Problem of Practice and Solutions/Innovations Grand Challenge………………...16-17
X. Stakeholders Point of View……………………………………………………………....17
X1. Call Me MISTER……………………………………………………………………..18-20
X11. Evidence to Support Proposed Solution and Innovation………………………….20-21
X111. Comparative Assessment for Innovation and Opportunities……………………21-22
X1V. Innovation Solution Logic Model and Theory of Change………………………...22-23
XV. Likelihood of Success…………………………………………………………………......23
XV1. Program Overview and Prototype………………………………………………….......23
XV11. Project Structure and Action Components………………………………………..23-24
XV111. Comparative Market Analysis…………………………………………………….24-25
X1X. Project Implementation Methods Reach and Aim of Implementation……………25-26
XX. Obstacles Alternative Pathways……………………………………………………….26-27
XX1. Leadership Strategies and Learning Goals……………………………………………..27
XX11. Financial Plan and Strategies……………………………………………………….27-28
XX111. Project Impact Assessment Methods Measurement Approach……………………..28
XX1V. Stakeholder Engagement Plan Internal Stakeholders………………………………..28
XXV. External Stakeholders……………………………………………………………………29
XXV1. Communications Strategies Facilitators Manual RJP Infographic…………........29-30
XXV11. Ethical Considerations…………………………………………………………………30
XXV111. Action and Implementation Summary of Project Plans……………………………31
XX1X. Current Implementations for Practices and Further Action……………………….....32
XXX. Limitations………………………………………………………………………………….33
XXX1. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………34
XXX111. References……………………………………………………………………………35-42
XXXIV. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………43-57

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Executive Summary
In Chicago, research shows that seventy-five percent of Black and Brown students who
live in under-class communities attend the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP), experiencing Zero-
Tolerance-Policies (ZTP) of suspensions, expulsion, and racial disparities. ZTPs are punitive
discipline practices that target students of color for minor discipline infractions in the school
pipeline, such as not turning in their homework, wearing a baseball cap, or not wearing their
school uniform. The Restorative Justice Program Capstone project will address the "Grand
Challenge to Promote Smart Decarceration" with Restorative Justice Practices (RJP). The RJP
designed training will eliminate these harsh disciplinarian policies that adversely affect students
of color, pushing them out of school and into the criminal justice system. The Restorative Justice
Program Capstone startup will take place at Thornton Township High Schools District 205 in
South Holland, Illinois, in the August 2021 fall semester. The Restorative Justice Program
coordinator/facilitator has been working with two Assistant Coordinators from April-August of
2020, lecturing and training teachers to become facilitators. The Prototype Facilitators Manual
designed training is structured for the Facilitator to lecture and train the teacher, social worker,
and Security Resource Officers (SROs) to restore safe and healthy practices, using restorative
justice practices training input from students who are directly affected.
Moreover, the Facilitator will also train the teachers, social workers, and SROs to help
students of color create a support system and provide a safe school culture environment. The
target population is students living in underclass communities who have been traumatized and
plagued with crime, drugs, and gang violence. This training will give the teacher, social worker,
and SROs a second chance to identify students' needs before deciding to use discipline or
extreme detention consequences. SROs will learn how harsh punishment may add to a
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traumatizing behavior disorder, rather than be a support system. Teachers will learn to be more
accommodating with students and parents to help resolve the problem before calling for more
suspensions. In America, if we are serious regarding the Grand Challenge to stop mass
incarceration and promote Smart Decarceration, we must start in the school pipeline. Schools
should maintain a safe and healthy learning environment to ensure all students can earn a quality
education without worrying about Zero-Tolerance Policies of physical or psychological force.
Conceptual Framework
Problem Statement
National
There are systemic injustices that deny people of color living in marginalized communities
equal access to an equitable education and resources to promote them with the opportunity to
achieve success, according to the Grand Challenge to Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice
(Calvo, Goldbach, & Padilla, 2018; Goldbach, Amaro, Amaro, Vega & Walter, 2015). In 1994
President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress passed into law, The Violent Crime Control and
Law Enforcement Act Bill. This $30 billion crime-control bill hired 100,000 newly trained
police officers to control crime and violence in low-income urban schools and communities in
America. The bill also applied the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act, which applied Zero-Tolerance
Policies and practices focused on low-income students of color. Parents and community
advocates in urban school districts complained that ZTPs became the norm of victimization of
students of color receiving harsh disciplinary punishment for minor infractions. School pipeline
reports show students received detention and suspensions for not wearing their school uniforms,
talking back to teachers, or not turning in their homework (Curran et al., 2016). SROs are
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walking the hallways and entering classrooms antagonizing and traumatizing students going and
coming from class (Cuellar & Makowitz 2015).
ZTP involves harsh discipline practices of suspensions, expulsion, juvenile detention, and
arrest, negatively impacting students' educational pursuit and increasing the high school dropout
rate. Black and Latinos are twice not likely to graduate than White students. The Black students'
arrest rate is 40% more than White students in school, and they are only 16% of the American
school population (U.S. Department of Justice, 2016).
The Chicago Tribune (2018) reported a rise of youth arrests in the past twenty years, and
Zero-Tolerance Policies became a major social and practice problem in low-income households
in America. Gang members used this opportunity to solicit Black and Hispanic males to make a
critical decision to sell drugs or become victims of police brutality (Alexander et al., 2014).
The School-to-Prison Pipeline used policies and practices like an "authoritarian
government," using racial disparities targeting students of color in underserved schools and
communities (Balfanz, R., Byrnes, V., & Fox, J. (2013).
In 1994 The U.S. Department of Education received $6 billion to allocate and implement
educational and prevention programs in underserved communities. Despite this, the crime,
violence, and murder rate continued to rise (Rios et al., 2011). Students of color attended school,
expecting to experience a safe and healthy learning environment, only to be traumatized to
observe armed police officers (Curran et al., 2016).
Parents, students, and community stakeholders were forced to accept these policies that have
become the norms in low-income public schools and communities. Parents are voicing their
concerns regarding their children growing up in a safe and healthy learning environment and
demanding the immediate discontinuation of these policies and practices (Simon et al., 2007).
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Inflicting extreme disciplinary punishment on students for referrals, suspensions, expulsion, and
juvenile detention undermines their constitutional rights (Burns & Crawford, 1999).
Chicago
The Chicago Tribune (2019) reported that 33,000 juveniles, most Black and Hispanic, were
arrested in the last 20 years, and all are linked to Chicago street gangs. The "Gangster Disciples"
is a well-known Chicago street gang. Chicago police research data indicate they are among the
largest street gangs in America, with over 35,000 members. The founder and leader, King Larry
Hoover, has been incarcerated for over 40 years, serving a life sentence.
Chicago police records show that thirteen of the juveniles arrested were ten years old. Sixty
were 11, and more than 300 were 12. Experts suggested by naming juveniles as gang members
requires a price, and this price carries lifelong social problems for the juveniles with no purpose
to police. Along with this criminal negligence data on the same day, Chicago police reported a
12-year-old Black male shot in the head, followed by a ten-year-old Hispanic female shot in the
shoulder, an 11-year-old Hispanic male shot in the ankle, and a 20-year-old Black male shot in
the hand. The Restorative Justice Program will be a prevention resource to address gangs and
criminal violence in local and national urban cities utilizing the RJP Facilitators Manual of
lecturing and training. The Chicago Police Department just received an increase of a $38 million
contract to continue its mission to have the Security Resource Officers guard classrooms and
hallways in the Chicago Public Schools (Chicago Tribune, 2019). Parents, community
stakeholders, and elected officials hold community townhall meetings about students of color
experiencing racial disparities and unequal punitive treatment by SROs.
Chicagoans are extremely upset that the Chicago Public School system is operating like the
criminal justice system. Black and Hispanic males attend school in an authoritarian structure
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environment (Chicago Urban League 2019). Chicago Public Schools records show that 600
Chicago Public Schools serve a population of 361,000 students. Three years ago, the Chicago
Sun-Tribune (2018) reported there were 396,683 students.
Where are the missing 35,683 students? For the past five years, community stakeholders
have been reporting a massive increase of Black and Hispanic males enrolling in suburban
school districts abandoning the Chicago Public Schools. Cook County Chief Judge Timothy
Evans reported the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center reported an average of over 2,764
juveniles per year are detained since 2009. Seventy percent are Black, 14% are Hispanic and
Latino, and 10 % are White, and on a daily count, 240 are detained while 50 are detained for
minor infractions.
Chicago Police records (2019) show there were 3,331 shootings and 762 homicides in low-
income communities and indicated millions of dollars spent on violence prevention. However,
parents and community advocates are asking about the program's outcomes.
Social Problem Impact
The 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA), relating to the School-to-Prison Pipeline, was a
severe threat to undetected and untreated students' mental health conditions, which led to
unwarranted suspensions and expulsions. When teachers put an action plan to address policies
and practices in the School-to-Prison Pipeline process and procedures against students with
emotional health disorders, students began to stand up to pursue their academic achievements.
However, students addressed as problematic and exercising behavior issues attending school
received the prison pipeline discipline practices (McGrew et al., 2016).
Black students from under-resourced households were historically under-diagnosed with
behavior disorders and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a chronic
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and persistent disease marked by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, which starts early in
childhood and becomes more apparent in adulthood (Hoffman et al., 2014).
ADHD is a systematic, labeled under-diagnosed disease leading to Black students having
complications and difficulties with academic concentration. ADHD and a list of other mental
health disorders have caused disadvantaged groups of Black students to suffer without treatment
while attending school, and they are considered vulnerable suspects for the criminal justice
system. Three processes create school inequality targeting Black Children (Heitzeg, 2009).
• Under-diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Punitive punishment in the School-to-Prison Pipeline ZTPs
• Over-populations of Black students attending the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Georgetown Law Journal reported that using positive psychological methods to decrease
classroom size is a preventative discipline to stop behavior problems. Students are encouraged to
focus on academics to become manageable and less confrontational to be arrested (Welch, Kelly,
Payne, and Allison, 2010). Black students, when approached in a positive and empathetic way
and are engaged in conversations about crime and violence, overcome being threatened and are
more susceptible to engage in school initiatives. Implementing positive school programs will
improve emotional health disorders and mitigate criminal activity (ACLU, 2019).
Policy and Practice Problem
Across the country, students of color are victims in the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The STPP
refers to any educational agency receiving federal funds to hire Security Resource Officers in
their schools to carry out unmonitored ZTPs. The U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil
Rights (2016) reports data that Black students' suspensions are three times higher than White
students in the STPP.
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In 1994, the U.S. Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act Law, which requires each state
receiving federal funds to have a state law requiring local educational agencies to expel any
student bringing a weapon to school for at least a one-year expulsion. The law was mandatory
unless a head school administrator requested a lesser infraction. This law was an amendment to
improve the America's Schools Act of 1994 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965. The 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act Law encouraged states receiving federal funds to
incorporate their laws and defenses known as the Zero-Tolerance Policies and Practices.
The law required schools to develop policies with referrals to the juvenile delinquency
centers or directly to the criminal justice system. These laws afforded students the extreme
maximum of procedural due process of expulsion, unless schools provided a procedural due
process for students with disabilities (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 1990). West
Virginia immediately offered formal procedural due process procedures, while other states,
namely Utah, offered a lack of procedural due process for their students.
Due process required orderly and legally defensible procedural requirements to be installed,
depriving students of their educational rights. The U.S. Supreme Court case Goss v. Lopez stated
that students' suspensions of ten days or less are legally bound to an oral or written notice of
infractions and charges with an explanation provided with evidence against them to provide their
legal defense.
A significant concern of the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 was that the law would not apply
to private school agencies that did not receive federal funding. The concern stated this would
prevent the bill from achieving its intended goal and outcomes. These punitive laws have
detrimental effects on school children living in low-income communities. Students of color are
not violent or dangerous and constitute no threat to their schools, communities, or society.
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These laws only impose detrimental results against intercity youth living in underserved
communities (U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2016), leaving them isolated
to commit crime, join gangs, or become criminal justice victims. Empirical data prove that these
laws do not prevent violence (Black et al., 2015).
The safeguard defense for students regarding the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 ceases in
between school property and public property, making the law insufficient. To violate the act, the
student must bring the weapon on school property according to the law. The act does not shield
or prevent a student or person committed to bringing a weapon to school to perpetuate a violent
attack. The Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 does nothing to prevent students from these
disciplinary infractions; it only enforces strict and harsh punishment for referrals to the juvenile
and criminal justice system (Gonzalez et al., 2012).
Impact of Policies and Practices on Youth
Zero-Tolerance Policies and Practices have a deleterious effect on students of color trying
to survive in a system engaging them in a counter-discourse with limited options to embrace
their "culture of dignity." The system has been set up for Black males to feel like a victim,
threatening their dignity and masculinity, while some scholars say dignity culture has moral
values and behavior norms (Campbell & Manning, 2014).
Many Black scholars attest that victimhood culture sees moral worth defined by skin color
and deviant behavior. In his March on Washington speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that all
men should treat all men equally. However, when Black males grow up without a father in the
home, and their mother is on welfare, they have limited options to succeed. They then attend
school and are traumatized by harsh treatment in a prison environment, which creates feelings of
hopelessness (Cosby & Poussaint, 2007).
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Research reveals that these disciplinarian practices create unhealthy and unsafe learning
environments for student development. School research data report that SROs use unnecessary
force against students for minor rule violations, causing them to retaliate. The LGBTQ students
incur intimidation, and many are victims suffering from an emotional, physical, or behavior
disorder (U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2015).
According to parents, students, and community stakeholders, transformative and sustainable
reform is long overdue in urban communities in metropolitan cities. Today, social and practice
policies regarding local and federal legislation to implement sensitivity training for teachers and
police officers fall on deaf ears. Early intervention for positive student behavior training, hiring
more social workers, therapists, and nurses to help students who have been traumatized and
suffering from behavior disorder is not a priority (Hirschfield, 2008; Sojoyner, 2013).
The U. S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (2015) data indicate Black
students who have a Borderline Personality Disorder, Antidepressant, Panic Disorder, or
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are four times as likely to incur multiple suspensions
and twice as likely to be expelled than their White classmates.
Empirical Evidence
The School-to-Prison Pipeline embraces school exclusion to seek incarceration and a
universal, comprehensive racial agenda of ZTP and practices (Cuellar & Markowitz, 2015).
According to the U. S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, this unequal treatment
has become a deterrent to LGBTQ students and students suffering from an emotional or physical
disorder. The report had severe concerns regarding exclusionary discipline practices restraining
students and locking them up in a seclusion room. However, this prevented them from taking
their medication and participating in their required instructional time.
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Zero-tolerance policies have "pushed out" students of color attending the school pipeline;
they are suspended or expelled with no evidence of causing violation regarding school policy
(Losen, 2014). Racial disparities and implicit bias discrimination against students of color
receive punitive discipline punishment for minor infractions than White students committing the
same type of violation (Skiba et al., 2002). Moreover, according to Police reports in Metropolitan
City schools, students with emotional behavior disorders are directed to neighboring Police
Departments, especially those with Security Resource Officers (SROs) programs. These
practices lead students of color, particularly Black, Hispanic, and Latino males, into the criminal
justice system vindicating the trend toward a "school-to-prison pipeline" (Petrosino,
Guckenburg, & Fronius, 2012). Research strongly links suspension and other school disciplines
to failure to graduate (Losen, 2014).
Conceptual Framework and Theory of Change
In the early 70s, three distinguished types of criminal justice practices change the theory of
punitive punishment: retributive, distributive, and restorative (Eglash 1977). The first two denied
the victim the opportunity to participate in the legal justice process, focusing mainly on the
criminal act and required limited participation by offenders. The third one, however, allowed the
offender and the victim to reconcile their differences to focus on how they could restore any
harmful actions enforced upon the victim during the criminal process. The justifiable method
used was to repair the breach of relationship or harm committed or inflicted upon the victim.
(Mirsky et al., 2003). The Restorative Justice Program will constitute the theory of change,
implementing the third practice that Eglash incorporated in the early 70s, including the offender
to address the victim in the early process to restore the harmful effects of the offense. This
practice will allow teachers, social workers, SROs, and students to built strong, sustainable
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relationships. Moreover, reconcile their differences using healthy ways to resolve their problems
than executing disciplinary penalties of suspensions, expulsion, and juvenile detention. The
training will allow students to voice their opinions on decision making, so teachers will
understand how Zero-Tolerance Policies affect the classroom and the school culture.
District 205 School coordinator/facilitator and his two Assistant Coordinators will train
teachers, social workers, and Security Resource Officers to become facilitators using the
Restorative Justice innovative Program Prototype Facilitators Manual. Research data show that
suspensions do not develop students' learning skills or improve a school's environment; instead,
it pushes students out of the classroom (Curan, 2016). The Facilitator, teacher, social worker, and
SROs will implement restorative justice practices to decrease pushing students out of the
classroom to promote a supportive school culture. The training will also improve and empower
students' overall educational experience.
Students will learn how to apply communications techniques using effective statements to
promote proactive school and community building activities (Evans & Vaandering, 2016). The
Capstone project consists of three trainings implementing Restorative Justice Practices. One
training addresses restorative justice practices for students and will help the Facilitator, teacher,
social worker, and SROs to teach students to use positive design thinking skills. Students will
learn problem-solving skills and learn to develop a method of understanding to control their
emotions and address a problematic situation when challenged.
Moreover, it provides a framework that defines problems and empathizes with students to
understand the importance of building a relational school culture that decreases students' hostile
behavior and embraces school sustainability for generations (Wilson et al., 2014). Another
training addresses the teachers' diverse cultural training. White teachers make up 83% of K-12
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teachers in Illinois; the designed training allows teachers to communicate effectively to engage
with students and interact and respect one another effectively.
The teacher will learn to understand the student's culture to communicate high academic
achievement and reshape a curriculum to address students' diversity to promote better outcomes
(Hammer & Bennett, 1998). The third and final training for Security Resource Officers addresses
implicit bias racial environments that target public school students of color from underclass
communities. Implicit Bias is a social cognition that unconsciously prejudges decisions reflecting
one's attitude toward stereotyping one's social-economic status, actions, and understanding.
However, the Restorative Justice Program Coordinator/Facilitator will use four teachers,
three social workers, and three SROs trained in April-August 2020 to start the August 2021
school year. The training will continue in April-August 2021 to train more teachers, social
workers, and SROs for the next two school semesters.
The Chicago Police Department is Security Resource Officers in the Chicago Public
Schools. According to Chicago residents and community advocates, the Chicago police have a
history of police brutality and murder of innocent victims for years. In 2014, Chicago then-
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago police, and former Cook County State's Attorney Anita
Alvarez were charged by the community with a cover-up for the murder of a 17-year-old
teenager, Laquan McDonald.
A White police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shot Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager, 16 times
as he walked in the streets on the west side of Chicago. Over 50 Chicago police answered the
called the evening of the murder of Laquan McDonald, a youth suffering from learning
disabilities and complex mental health diagnoses. His records indicated he was hospitalized three
times for psychiatric treatment, along with multiple school suspensions, expulsion, and a chronic
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case of truancy in the school pipeline. The ACLU (2015) reports stated that the Chicago school
pipeline failed Laquan McDonald. Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not seek a third term. (Please see
Appendix A for continued information on Conceptual Framework and Theory of Change)
Problem of Practice and Solution(s) / Innovation(s)
Grand Challenge Proposed Innovation
Social workers in Chicago feel empowered to work with teachers to keep students in the
classroom and away from the juvenile and criminal justice system. Social workers believe in a
responsive process rather than a punitive initiative that pushes students out of the classroom.
Social workers in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) speak out about how they can be an asset
and work with school administrators and teachers to dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline.
The Grand Challenge to promote Smart Decarceration is seeking comprehensible programs and
innovative solutions to decrease mass incarceration.
The Restorative Justice Program Capstone and the Prototype Facilitators Manual of
Restorative Justice Practices are unique, innovative trainings for schools with at-risk students.
Teachers will use RJP training to question students and learn the best course to induce empathy
and self-reflection. The trainings will help students be accountable for their behavior in and out
of the classroom. The RJP training for teachers, social workers, and SROs are centered on
building positive classroom relationships and promoting a safe and healthy school culture. The
RJP will provide the teacher and the social worker with the means to lecture and train students
using life development thinking concepts to demonstrate and recognize a problem situation.
Then they will be able to resolve the problem by utilizing good decision-making skills.
The Facilitators Manual designed restorative justice practices will challenge the risk factors
and negative peer pressure that gangs use to intimidate students into selling drugs and
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committing criminal offenses. When teachers lecture students on empathy and train them to
understand others' needs, they will learn new possibilities to observe someone else's perspective.
However, the Facilitators Manual designed training will allow the teacher, social worker, and
SROs to be reciprocal to learn from the training on observing the students' perspective and
develop an understanding of viewpoints other than their own.
Stakeholders' Point of View
The Restorative Justice Program stakeholders consist of Board of Education elected
officials, the superintendent of schools, parents, and community advocates. These stakeholders
have the power to make critical decisions regarding the District 205 schools in underserved
communities. One of the positive forces working with the Restorative Justice Program is a
diverse board of educational elected officials. The administration is extremely diverse, but there
is a gap among teachers when observing from a teacher's perspective; numbers tell a different
story. White teachers make up 83% of the teacher population in Illinois, 21% are Black, and 20%
Latino, and the student population in Chicago schools are 90% Black, Latino, and other students
of color. Another critical finding is that Black males make up 2% of K-12 teachers, and Latino
males are at one percent, according to The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce,
U.S. Department of Education (2015-16) report.
District 205 stakeholders find this is an educational nightmare that the Restorative Justice
Program needs to address. The Restorative Justice Program will collaborate with another
gatekeeper, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). After the students enroll in the
Restorative Justice Program and excel in their academic achievement, the Restorative Justice
Program Coordinator will identify eligible applicants for the Call Me MISTER scholarship.

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Collaboration
Call Me MISTER
The Call Me MISTER initiative is an educational scholarship program to train Black,
Hispanic, and Latino males growing up and graduating from high schools located in underclass
communities. Research explains how male students of color benefit from male teachers of color
in inner-city communities. Data show it makes the difference between success and failure.
According to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (2016), only 2% of
Black males are currently employed in the American Public Schools System.
The reality of young Black males being in a learning and teaching environment with
someone they can identify with is less than 1%. In 2018, UIC enrolled its inaugural cohort of
seven Black, Hispanic, and Latino males in their Call Me MISTER program. The program
initiative is to prepare Black, Hispanic, and Latino males for a scholarship opportunity to earn
their undergraduate degree in elementary education. The educational concept is to give Black,
Hispanic, and Latino males a chance to work in their Chicago Public Schools where they
graduated.
MISTER is the acronym for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models.
There are 31 universities across the country, including UIC serving this urban commitment.
Black, Hispanic, and Latino males will have an opportunity to return to their communities and
become Elementary teachers to prevent students of color from becoming victims of crime, drugs,
and gang violence. Instead, they will pave the way for them to achieve a proper higher education
and become employed tax-paying citizens.
The change theory will be for Black, Hispanic, and Latino males to return after receiving
the scholarship and graduating with an "Elementary Education Degree" to teach in their former
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school districts and communities. This support system will justify the means of the Restorative
Justice Program logic model with the Facilitators Manual designed lectures and training to
transform education in Thornton Township High Schools District 205's school pipeline and
neighboring feeder schools. Thornton Township High Schools District 205 has committed to
participate in this national pilot educational program. Our District 205 social workers will work
side by side with Black, Hispanic, and Latino male students who are qualified graduates to
receive the Call Me MISTER scholarship.
These qualified applicants will immediately be participants in the Restorative Justice
Program consisting of designed lectures and training with teachers, social workers, and SROs in
District 205. One of our desired outcomes is to witness these Black, Hispanic, and Latino males
return to District 205 after graduation from the UIC Call Me MISTER initiative. The hope is for
them to apply for employment and become teachers at Thornton Township High Schools District
205 and educate students of color to achieve their educational success. The stakeholder's point of
view and their primary interest is more Black and more Latino male and female teachers and
school equity in learning without Zero-Tolerance Policies.
Stakeholders and parents have repeatedly spoken out in town hall meetings that they have
had enough suspensions, expulsion, juvenile detention, and the criminal justice system targeting
students of color. They have approved the Restorative Justice Program's overall perspective and
designed training using the Prototype Facilitators Manual that starts in August 2021, now ready
for implementation. There are six gatekeepers that the Restorative Justice Program has partnered
with regarding evaluations and outcomes: (1) The Chicago Board of Education Teachers Union,
(2) The Chicago Police Department, (3) The Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, (4) The
Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center Chicago, (5) The University of
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Chicago of Illinois (UIC), (6) Calumet Township, IL. All six of these agencies have agreed to
support the three Restorative Justice Programs to lecture students and train teachers and SROs.
Evidence to Support Proposed Solution and Innovation
Racism in America is on display on television, radio, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
all social media outlets, even coming out of the White House. Critical Race Theory encounters
institutionalized racism and mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness as a part of history
and the "New Jim Crow" (Alexander et al., 2010). Laws that separate equality and diversity, such
as separate but equal, instead of promoting diversity, pushed White people in many cases away
from engaging with people of color (UCLA School of Public Affairs, 2009).
Black males are dying in record numbers due to excessive force and shot to death
captured on tape and live television by police officers all over America, according to an article in
The Guardian (2014). Police brutality against people of color has gotten worse and not better.
America has become more diverse. However, racism and Bias are problems in the school system,
disproportionally promoting White students over students of color, kindergarten through twelfth
grade (Startz et al., 2019). In today's society, teachers and police officers known in the public
schools as Security Resource Officers (SROs) must prepare for diverse classrooms to build
healthy relationships with students for a safe school climate.
In 2000 students of color surpassed and constituted one-third of all students attending
American schools, and research showed by the year 2020, these numbers would increase to 40%
(Cusher, McCelland, & Safford, 1996). Today attention is on display about preparing preservice
teachers who teach in diverse classrooms without sensitivity training. Students of color in today's
population reflect a substantial change in diversity. However, racial and ethnic composition is a
growing concern. Family composition, socioeconomic status, religion, ethnicity, and students'
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various abilities continue to affect societal expectations of what to consider in today's school
experience (Garibaldi et al., 1992). As the world turns and students are becoming more diverse,
teachers entering to teach K-12 are still active in the majority culture (Villegas et al., 1991).
This trend of diversity and the reflection of a student of color not experiencing a
culturally centered vision in their educational achievement is essential and can affect a student's
ability to succeed (Fuller et al., 1999). The realization of not having a diverse teaching culture is
critical because students listen to what teachers say, perceive, believe, and think, and research
suggests this can support or impair a student of color's academic achievement (Nel et al., 1992).
Culture is vital in education and must be fair and impartial regarding a teacher's belief,
teaching style, and understanding of multiculturalism (Sleeter et al., 1992). The Restorative
Justice Program will continue to implement diversity training for teachers, social workers, and
SROs to empower students of color to receive an equitable learning experience without racial
disparities. Teaming up with gatekeepers like UIC will continue to be a priority to encourage
more Black and Latino males to apply for scholarships. Then they can return to their community
and teach to make a difference in the lives of students who may be at a crossroads.
Comparative Assessment for Innovation and Opportunities
Parents and stakeholders are on the battlefield when problems occur in our schools
relating to teachers not being culturally sensitive to children and when police brutality becomes
the discipline to resolve a school problem. Educators reply that it is easy to explain how to
handle the problem when parents and community advocates are not present. Parents and
community advocates call this thinking colorblindness and blind Justice (Bennett et al., 1986).
However, we are all living in a multicultural society of opinions on how to resolve
problems. Many times, we do not ask the opinion of the student that is having the problem. If we
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do not first seek the student's input who is having the problem, we miss an opportunity to create
a solution and resolve it (Harrington & Hathaway, 1995; Noel, 1995; Shade, 1995). Whenever
there is a policy that creates new innovative ideas, whether it is changing a curriculum or
procedures like a new dress code in the school district, we most frequently consider it a
prototype. The Restorative Justice Program, Prototype Facilitators Manual, is an innovative
lecture and training to create revision and not an edit written in stone.
The Facilitators Manual designed training goal is to change the biased mindset of
teachers, social workers, and Security Resource Offers. This restorative Justice designed thinking
concept will establish a clear definition of the problem that requires the student's input to resolve
the problem. The Restorative Justice Program, Facilitators Manual designed training, will open
up opportunities for a whole-school approach of listening to parents, students, teachers, or SROs
involved in the conflict. The goal is to understand one another's perspective in designing a fair
and impartial solution.
Innovation Solution Logic Model and Theory of Change
After our first year of implementation, the Restorative Justice Program's logic will have
sufficient evidence and data to evaluate the Restorative Justice Practices designed lectures and
training effectiveness in decreasing school suspensions, expulsion, and juvenile detention.
Moreover, implementing the Restorative Justice Program, using the Facilitators Manual to
lecture and train teachers, social workers, and SROs will show the challenges and the strategies
and design thinking concepts. When correctly applied, we will see that this process works.
Furthermore, using the restorative mediation emotional behavior, culture competence,
and implicit Bias, three Facilitators Manual design thinking concept trainings will show a
positive difference. The benefit to District 205 implementing the restorative justice practices will
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build sustainable school relationships and reduce racial injustice and school disparities in
discipline and academic achievement. (Appendix B Logic Model).
Likelihood of Success
A pilot of the Restorative Justice Program utilizing designed facilitators' lectures and
training with teachers and police officers took place in April through August 2020.
Program Overview and Prototype
The Restorative Justice Program is an innovative Facilitators Manual of designed lectures
and training practices consisting of three trainings to decrease racial disparities. One training will
address a facilitator training for teachers, social workers, and SROs, to address students' behavior
and learn to use empathy to build a healthy school culture and student relationships. The other
two trainings will address the Cultural of Competence Training and Implicit Bias Racial Training
for teachers and SROs' restoration practices that change their mindset to understand different
school cultures. The three-year initiative has been designed for a Chicago startup at Thornton
Township High Schools District 205 with a mission to expand in metropolitan cities to address
systemic practices of Zero-Tolerance Policies affecting students of color.
Project Structure and Action Components
The Restorative Justice Program and the Restorative Justice Practices Prototype
Facilitators Manual are designed lectures and training methods that strengthen the school
climate. Implementing innovative practices and addressing racial disparities and Zero-Tolerance
Policies that target marginalized populations of color is unconstitutional, leading to the criminal
justice system. Program data collected will be disseminated with gatekeepers and stakeholders,
including the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, to evaluate the program without Bias. To
prove proof of readiness for funding, Thornton Township High Schools District 205 has agreed
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to fund the Restorative Justice Program startup August 2021, fall semester, implementation for
the first three years. (Appendix C for the agreement document from Superintendent Dr.
Nathaniel Cunningham Jr. Restorative Justices Program.)
Comparative Market Analysis
There are many competitors in the restorative practice field. Many of them are well
known, such as the Catholic Charities, the Boys and Girls Club of America, and the Job Corps.
However, the school pipeline continues to be enemy number one in metropolitan cities
throughout the United States. Undergraduate students learn how to work with students in the
middle class (Cannella & Reiff, 1994; Gollnick & Chinn, 1998), such as these aforementioned
charitable organizations. National Public Radio (NPR 2015) broadcasted a show the topic was
"Where Have All the Teachers Gone?" The Host, Eric Westervelt, educated the audience
regarding six million K-12 teachers in America, and 84% were White females. The show
explained why teachers of color experienced burn-out within three to five years, for the lack of
administrative support and resources.
The revealing part was that Black students make-up over 50% of the population in low-
income communities. The demographic chasm mostly stereotypes with racial disparities,
essentially because of the student's socioeconomic status. Mr. Westervelt explained how and
why White female teachers have problems managing public school classrooms in underserved
communities; the number one reason is they lack the necessary cultural competence training of
the students of color in their classrooms. According to the NPR Broadcast and scholars and
researchers in the restorative justice community, this system exists today. The Restorative Justice
Program has a unique, innovative solution to implement nationally, utilizing the Restorative
Justice Practices Facilitators Manual Training.
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The Facilitators Manual can be in every school system, social service agencies, law
enforcement agencies, and family households in America, training millions of White teachers in
need of this critical educational training resource. The overarching process within the other
agencies is to develop leadership and activities selecting a small minority. The Restorative
Justice Program's goals and mission are to address students of color who are negatively affected
by cultural competence insensitivity by White teachers and Zero-Tolerance-Policies discipline
practices that SROs use to control their leadership capabilities. Moreover, the goal is to develop
a mindset starting in every metropolitan city and expanding globally into Third World countries
to become a networking generation to open doors of opportunities providing access for
underclass communities worldwide. Regardless of race, gender, religion, or ethnicity.
Project Implementation Methods
Reach and Aim of Implementation
The Restorative Justice Program Capstone startup will take place at Thornton Township
High Schools District 205 in South Holland, Illinois, in the August 2021 fall semester. The
Restorative Justice Program coordinator/facilitator and two assistant coordinators have been
lecturing and training four teachers, three social workers, and three Resource Officers from April
through August 2020. These teachers, social workers, and SROs will be facilitators with the
coordinator/facilitator and two assistant coordinators for the August 2021 startup program. (See
Appendix H for continued information regarding implementation and Methods next steps)
Appendix C is the agreement document from Superintendent Dr. Nathaniel Cunningham
Jr. Restorative Justices Program, indicating he is ready to start implementation at Thornton
Township High Schools District 205 August 2021. Appendix D document is from former Mayor
Joseph Dupar of Calumet Park, Illinois, regarding the Restorative Justice Program, Facilitators
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training at the Calumet Park District, Calumet Park, Illinois, April through August 2020. (Please
see Appendix G for continuation of Project Implementation Methods Reach and Aims of
Implementation)
Obstacles Alternative Pathways
Obstacles regarding the Restorative Justice Program will always show up in the
Restorative Justice Practices Facilitators Manual Intervention Plan, especially interventions that
include referrals to gangs, drugs, and criminal behavior offenses. In the Restorative Justice
Program, everyone has to plead guilty to the offense if they are guilty. Some may not want to
plead guilty and accept responsibility for their actions. The number one barrier for students is the
admission of guilt or quitting a gang. The student's primary concern is retaliation and critical
consequences, even death in many cases of Black and Brown males living in urban gang-infested
communities. Some of these offenses are strict, and some may feel they are not going to accept
responsibility. Teachers and Security Resource Officers are willing to oblige the responsibility,
but sometimes have second thought of searching for empathy according to qualitative interviews
used for evaluating outcomes.
However, the Restorative Justice Program initiates extensive practices to encourage
empathy, consequential thinking, and anger management when necessary. The Restorative
Justice Program will use a qualitative research approach to attain multiple variables, such as
perceptions, feelings, ideas, personal ideology, and cultural factors. The sampling plan consists
of qualitative interviews and field information collected from the Thornton Township High
Schools District 205 implementation of the Restorative Justice Program. The evaluation data is
disseminated to the gatekeepers and the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center to analyze and
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evaluate the Restorative Justice Program's success (Anyon, Y., Gregory, A., Stone, S., Farrar,
J.M., McQueen, J., …Simmons, J.. et al., 2016).
Leadership Strategies and Learning Goals
The Restorative Justice Program practices are multi-faceted strategies that are important
for developing a successful program. These are leadership strategies implemented in the
Restorative Justice Program at Thornton Township High Schools District 205 three-year startup
in August 2021 to go through 2023.
• Understanding the philosophy of the Restorative Justice Program from an ethical and
philosophical process to accomplish program goals and bare consequences of various
consideration of punishment
• Accepting and acknowledging responsibility for one's actions and the consequences
• Building trust and showing understanding in a safe and healthy school culture to restore
positive relationships
• Assess the strategies and effectiveness of the Restorative Justice Program, Facilitators
Manual implementation methods and critical assessment of a grassroots training bottom-
up and administrative top-down version
Financial Plan and strategy
The Restorative Budget Information
Disclosure of Federal Participation - Projects or programs funded in whole or in part with
Federal grant money must credit the Federal government for the Federal government's portion of
the financial support. This web page citation informs the public that federal dollars in the
Thornton Township High SchoolsDistrict #205 meets the Stevens Amendment requirement.
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Staff development opportunities, resource purchases, and personnel have been funded in whole
or in part with federal entitlement dollars.
Thornton Township High Schools District 205 is a government and state-funded school district.
Funding allocation is from the administration to the entire school district. The research and
observation would suggest that some of their programs can be a shared cost to elevate and
sustain program productivity in the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Restorative Justice Program,
Facilitators Manual initiative. Enhancing alternative programs will reduce discipline behavior
and allocate more funding for teachers and SROs' restoration practices training to build energetic
cultural relationships. Therapeutic practice programs reduce neighborhood crime, high school
dropout rates, gang violence, and mass incarceration.
Project Impact Assessment Methods
Measurement Approach
The Restorative Justice Program is a research-designed pre-experimental and
observational design with a pre/post-test. The test will correlate the racial disparities and the
Zero-Tolerance Policies unjust disciplines affecting students of color in the school pipeline. The
Restorative Justice Program, Facilitators Manual, lectures, and training plan design will help the
Facilitator and the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center evaluators determine the teacher,
SROs, and students' understanding of the training. The methods of assessment will match the
taxonomy level of each objective.
(See Appendix E for continued information regarding Project Impact Methods next steps)
Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Internal Stakeholders
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The superintendent of Thornton Township High Schools District 205 and all gatekeepers
support systems mentioned will be guiding the direction of funding locally in a whole-school
approach instead of outside the scope raising funds for the Restorative Justice Program and
Prototype Facilitators Manual. As mentioned earlier, the gatekeepers and this school system will
always contribute to students of color, ensuring this marginalized student population will have an
educational opportunity to succeed.
External Stakeholders
Research studies regarding the school pipeline have shown that Zero-Tolerance Policies
and racial disparities will decrease in a whole-school approach, changing the school culture. This
innovative leadership support of restorative justice practices in the School-to-Prison Pipeline
receives major philanthropic funders' attention when school administrators and principals
support the program. This attention not only attracts funders, it enhances the chances for students
of color to have a successful head start.
Communication Strategies
For Immediate Release:
Media Outlets and Speakers Campaign
The Action Prevention Campaign Initiative will use marketing strategies to explain how
significant and practical the three Restorative Justice Program Facilitators Manual Trainings will
support academic achievement and positive school outcomes for teachers, SROs, and students.
The three lectures and training are (1) Restorative justice mediation and emotional behavior
disorders lectures and training for students. (2) Cultural of Competence Training for teachers,
and (3) Implicit Bias Racial Training for Security Resource Officers (SROs). The message will
be clear and concise to support a whole-school approach for safe and learning cultures for
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generations in the future. The campaign will advertise a clear message and use all television,
radio, district websites, and social media outlets. The school district has a large social media
platform and community following and a relationship with local television, radio, newspapers,
and social media outlets covering the District 205 community. This public relations
communication relationship will allow District 205 to have a successful school outreach.
Speakers for the Action Prevention Campaign
Thornton Township High Schools District 205 has an audience of speakers that have
been extremely successful after graduating and becoming celebrities. There will be several
alumni to select. Here is a list of names: NBA players Quin Buckner (Boston Celtics NBA
World Champion 1984) and NBA player Edie Curry (Chicago Bulls NBA 2001), NFL player
Napoleon Harris (Oakland Raiders NFL 2002, Super Bowl Champion) and now an Illinois State
Senator. MLB player Steve Trout (Chicago White Sox 1976) and Actor and Comedian Deon
Cole is staring in the sitcom Blackish. The Restorative Justice Program leaders will include and
invite political leaders and community advocates to address the Restorative Justice Program. The
celebrity mentioned above has a track record of alumni and District 205 political leaders
returning to support their District 205 Alma Mata. The Restorative Justice Program's goal is to
disrupt the social norms of Zero-Tolerance Policies disciplines of suspensions, expulsion,
juvenile detention, and racial disparities pushing students out of school, violating their
constitutional rights to equitable education. The speakers will be mentors to motivate and inspire
the students in the Restorative Justice Program. (Appendix H-Facilitators Manual) and
(Appendix I-Restorative Justice Program Infographic).
Ethical Considerations
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The Restorative Justice Program's primary ethical concerns are for the teachers and
students. The students will provide consent and receive confidentiality throughout the program.
The Restorative Justice Program will create a safe learning space for teachers and students'
shared experiences in the program. The U.S. Department of Secretary of Education protects
students' and teachers' First Amendment Constitutional rights; the Restorative Justice Program
will follow all established, law-abiding rules enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Please see the parents/student consent form. (See Appendix F: RJP Consent Form)
Action and Implementation
Summary of Project Plans
The Restorative Justice Program's next step is to utilize a whole-school approach to
analyze the pilot RJP and identity the student elements of trends, themes, and patterns from the
Facilitators Manual designed lectures and training learning concepts. Moreover, students who
have experienced a variable impact and students who experienced disciplinary actions involving
delinquency, suspensions, expulsion, juvenile detention, arrest, and the criminal justice system
are identified and evaluated by the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center evaluators. The
evaluation will allow the Facilitators to recognize the patterns and themes and redirect and
address any problems with the designed thinking lectures and mediation training to resolve any
recurring problems for a positive outcome. Teachers and Security Resource Officers (SROs)
lectures and training will go through a rigorous process evaluation by the Chicago Teachers
Union evaluating committee, ensuring no bias reporting transparency of the public's outcome.
A Restorative Justice Program midterm and final report will be submitted to the Thornton
Township High Schools District 205 board and superintendent. Reports and data will also be
submitted to the gatekeepers and the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center to correlate with
32
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their monitoring and evaluation of the program outcomes. These program safeguards will ensure
no Bias in the Restorative Justice Program evaluation process and outcomes. Furthermore, this
process will allow sustainability and bring national attention to this innovative Restorative
Justice Program.
Current Implications for Practices and Further Action
The Restorative Justice Program is an innovative process that will change the
socioeconomic status of students' life experiences in metropolitan cities in America. However,
trial and error regarding systematic norms are embedded in a theory of Justice, integrating
students in repairing the breach of their action inflicting criminal behavior. Institutional racism
has existed in America's school system since slavery in the 1800s. Therefore, this program
initiative has always been a Grand Challenge.
Restorative justice programs have been in the classrooms for generations but ignored
because of America's criminal justice system. Now is the time to bring an innovative and
sustainable solution to a problem that has caused irreparable harm to students of color living in
underclass communities. The Restorative Justice Program is investing in today's programmatic
change in society, with generations of young, energetic students of color becoming leaders.
Leadership is a quality in the life of aspiring young students growing up in inner cities
that are experiencing the school pipeline, police brutality, incarceration, and even death to take
charge and voice their opinion in non-violent protest. These are restoration learning practices to
support protective risk factors allowing students to make life-changing decisions. Lastly, there
are three crucial steps to restore Justice using the restorative justice Facilitators Manual designed
lectures and training concepts. 1) Identify and take the necessary action to repair a broken
breach, 2) Community stakeholders and community organizers must have a seat at the table, and
33
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3) Innovating a social process and policy to transform traditional relationships involving
community, government justice, crime, and peace. The Restorative Justice Program's mission
and goal are to build strong, lasting relationships in neighborhoods and schools plagued by
criminal behavior traumatizing victims and communities (National Center for Mental Health
Promotion and Youth Violence, 2009).
Limitations
During training, the process was challenging. Out of 22 recruited teachers and Security
Resource Officers, only ten were receptive. Many of the teachers and SROs had exhausting jobs
and focused on spending time with their families. All of the trainees were White teachers and
White Security Resource Officers in regards to Cultural Competency Training and Implicit Bias
Racial Training for this population working in urban school communities. The trainee social
workers were Black. However, we were able to succeed in our August-April 2020 training, and
we are ready for implementation. Hopefully, there will be initial training by April -August 2021,
depending on the COVID-19 Pandemic Vaccine. The consequences of the limitations of the
teachers and SROs were understandable when family is concern. However, the main problem
was the COVID-19 Health Pandemic that crippled the entire United States educational system.
District 205 followed all guidelines recommended by Governor J. B. Pritzker and the State of
Illinois; Dr. Ngozi Ezike's, recommended sanitizing schools and facilities, social distancing,
wearing a mask, washing hands, and staying safe at home with family. Illinois schools were
closed, especially the most vulnerable in underserved communities, to protect Illinois residents
and families' lives due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. District 205 rendered a survey to the parents,
students, teachers, and community stakeholders, regarding Re-mote Learning. The response was
34
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

teachers 90%, parents 68.2%, and students 51.8 %. District 205 will continue Re-mote Learning
until Governor Pritzker and Dr. Ezike opens the schools in Illinois.
Conclusion
Change is not impossible when one has the intestinal fortitude to make a difference in life
experiences. It is a requirement from one committed to dismantling a systematic disruption of
resistance to promote diversity in all human culture sanctions. The Restorative Justice Program
promotes change in America's schools to be fair and impartial with disciplinarian policies to
enhance classrooms' opportunities that currently exclude Black and Brown males.
Change and bridging gaps that have separated American cultures for generations will take
time, but the disparity will continue to be permanent if we are complacent. However, doubt can
take over in the minds of aspiring young leaders who are determined for change when familiar
notions of cultural competence, cultural humanity, diversity, and implicit bias racism are still
there. The Restorative Justice Program is in place to decrease racism's role in inequality and
inequitable outcomes in America's school system. Research shows that to change young Black
and Brown males' lives in the school pipeline before they experience the criminal justice system,
Black and Brown men who have achieved success must be reciprocal. It should be their
obligation to go back to their roots and plant seeds of growth and development for those young
Black and Brown males struggling to succeed. The Restorative Justice Program is a unique,
innovative school restoration change-maker in education that does not ignore society's issues.
Instead, we are ready to build global relationships and collaboration in the school pipeline. I am
investing time and scholarly research on this Restorative Justice Facilitators Manual to extend an
educational socioeconomic answer to underserved Metropolitan Cities in America and globally.

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39
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Procedural Due Process, 20Pace L. Rev. 131. (1999). Available at: l20/iss1/7
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www.chicagotribune.com > news breaking > ct-met-c

July 25, 2018 — August 09, 2018 at 5:00 AM ... (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago

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EJ460437)
President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress passed into law. (1994). "The Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act Bill."
Rios, V.M. (2011). Punished: Policing the lives of black and Latino boys. New York: University.
Simon, J. (2007). Governing through crime: How the war on crime transformed American
democracy and created a culture of fear. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Soyjoyner, D. M. (2013). Black radicals make for bad citizens: Undoing the myth of the
school to prison pipeline. Berkeley Review of Education, 4(2), 241-263
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Sleeter, C. E. (1992). Multicultural education: Five views. Education Digest, 53-57.
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Brookings. Retrieved from htts://www.brooking.edu/blog/browncenterchalkboard/2019/
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Thalia González, Keeping Kids in Schools: Restorative Justice, Punitive Discipline, and the
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U.S. Congress The division recently released a comprehensive report that provides an overview
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41
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

U. S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. (2016). Unequal treatment becomes
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U. S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. (2015). data records indicate Black
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Public Policy

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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Appendix: A
Continuation Laquan McDonald
Chicago protests continued for months with a diverse voice calling for police reform and a
US Civil Rights Department of Justice investigation. Former President Barack Obama spoke out
against this incomprehensible homicide. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an
investigation. After the DOJ investigation, the Chicago Police Department had to reform its
policy against underclass communities and intercity youth.
According to a Chicago police report, Superintendent of Police Eddie Johnson stated that
"Implicit Bias Training or the pervasive, deep-rooted discrimination regarding one's behavior"
will be a priority. The Restorative Justice Program and the Restorative Justice Facilitators
Manual designed lectures and training are tools for the Facilitator, teacher, social worker, and
SROs teaching in the school pipeline.
The Restorative Justice Practices designed training is tailored to affect social and practice
change regarding racial disparities and the interrelationship between schools and the criminal
justice system. However, the Restorative Justices Practices training will help social workers and
teachers identify and train at-risk students who may be considering dropping out,
and they can refer them to appropriate services. The RJP will have social justice concepts as a
cultural consensus to promote social Justice within higher education.
This RJP training will motivate students and provide a platform for students to choose a
political agenda while attending college. The RJP will also have a communications social media
component to collaborate with other schools to work on extracurricular activities and
community-based programs within their school district.
44
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

The Restorative Justice Program will be available for students in the hospital, foster care,
juvenile detention centers, prisons, and community-based wraparound service organizations.
Students recognized as LGBTQ suffering from behavior or disability disorders will benefit from
the Restorative Justice Program and will experience a safe and healthy learning environment.
This Restorative Justice Program and the Facilitators Manual lectures and training will support
law enforcement and deter SROs' presence in the public school system. The RJP training for
facilitators, teachers, social workers, staff, and SROs will enlighten and encourage students to
earn their high school diploma and become employed.

45
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(1) Prototype: Educational App

(2) Teaching Staff and Social Workers

(3) Targeted Students Males and Female

(4) Computer Software and Hardware

(5) Funding and Resources

(6)

Prototype Educational App

(1) Prototype: Educational App
(2) Teachers and Social Workers
(3) Curriculum and Lesson Plan
(4) Students support – Introduction
and Expectation of the Program
(5) Student Environment
(6) High School Collaborations
(7) No to Cops: Yes, to Counselors
(1) Emphasis on Silence and Order
(2) Input in Decision Making
(3) Educational App Training Sessions
(4) Standardized Education without
Punitive Discipline
(5) Culture Relevant to Social Justice
Education
(6) Detention Abolition and
Transformative Justice
(7) Youth Expression and Culture
(8) Teachers Identify Students at Risk
of Dropping Out and Refer Them
to Appropriate Services
Activities
Outcomes
Long Term
Outputs
Outcomes
Short Term
Appendix B: Logic Model: School-to-Prison Pipeline
Guiding Principles: (1) Eliminating Disparities in Discipline Practices (2) Creating a Nurturing
Supporting School Climate (3) Professional Training and Development (5) Student and Family-
Engagement

(1) Increased Educational Attainment
(2) Increased Occupational Attainment
(3) Restorative Justice Sessions
(4) Student Leadership Training
(5) Role Model Support for Students
(6) Prevent High School Drop-Outs
(7) Prevent School Crime, Gangs and Drug
Activity with Educational App
(8) School system is More Supportive of
Vulnerable Students
(1) Increased knowledge about
Educational App and IT Skills
(2) Increased Motivation to
Succeed at School to
improve confidence to use
the Educational App and IT
Skills: Dress Code
(3) Authoritarian Structure
(4) Negative Reinforcement
(5) No input in Decision Making

Inputs
(1) Student Dropout Rate is Reduced
(2) Vulnerable Students Complete High School
(3) Employment for Job Opportunities
(4) More Students Attending College
(5) Reduced Appearance and Control of Police Activity
(6) Educational App making a Difference in Student
Behavior
(7)
(8)
Impacts
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Appendix: C
Superintendent Letter of Support for Implementation

Nathaniel Cunningham Jr., Ph.D., Superintendent

October 7, 2020

Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr. Ph., D
Superintendent
Thornton Township High Schools District 205
465 East 170th Street
South Holland, Illinois 60473-3481

Greetings:

As the Superintendent of Thornton Township High Schools District 205, I am writing this
letter of support on behalf of Mr. Earl B. King regarding the Restorative Justice
Program, a three-year program with a start date of August 2021 school year. The
Restorative Justice Program is a district partnership we support and are proud to
welcome to continue to put our students first to educate them on their academic
achievement in a safe school learning environment.

The program's goals provide a systemic approach to raising our students' academic
achievement in District 205. The recent history of school disciplinary practices in school
districts across the country demonstrates why our commitment supports this restorative
program. The Restorative Justice Program implementation, with Mr. King's intervention
Facilitators Manual practices, will help our school district experience fewer disciplinary
problems.

I highly support the Restorative Justice Program and believe the implementation of this
program will provide data that can be used for increasing academic achievement in
school districts throughout our country. Email: cunninghamjr.nathaniel@district205.net

Sincerely,

Thornton Township High School District 205
465 EAST 170
TH
STREET  SOUTH HOLLAND, ILLINOIS 60473-3481
708. 225.4000 FAX: 708. 225. 4059 WWW.DISTRICT205.NET
708.225.4000  FAX: 708.225.4004
WWW.DISTRICT205.NET
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Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr., Ph. D
Appendix: D
Support Letter former Mayor of Calumet Park Joseph Dupar
Mr. Joseph Dupar
Honorable Calumet Township Trustee
12633 Ashland Ave
Calumet, Illinois 60827
Dear Friends:

I am delighted to write this letter of support for the Restorative Justice program.
I have been involved with Mr. Earl B. King's work in Chicago and his program initiative
nationally for some twenty years. I endorse and believe the affordable mentioned program
embodies some of the best youth education principles to prevent police intervention over
academics. The humanities' transformative power lies in its ability to help us understand peoples,
cultures, and ideas that we have never experienced. It allows us to change our course, which
empowers us to change the future for the better.
Please accept my total appreciation and endorsement of Mr. King's Restorative Justice Program
and how his youth's commitment will make us better people for our children.
Sincerely,
Mr. Joseph Dupar
Honorable Calumet Township Trustee

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Appendix E
Project Impact Assessment Methods
Measurement Approach
Outcome Measures
The outputs that the Restorative Justice Program will use to measure phases of the
intervention are four teachers, three social workers, and three Security Resource Officers, which
is a total of ten training facilitators. There will be a classroom of 15 student participants. The
schedule consists of a 40-minute session and a ten-month training once a week for 40 sessions
for teachers, social workers, SROs, and students. The design is a pre-experimental observational
design with a pre/post-test. The test is correlated to the Restorative Justice Facilitators Manual
lectures and training practices. The methods of assessment will match the taxonomy level of
each objective.
However, validity is essential in determining outcomes through qualitative interviews
with teachers, social workers, SROs, and students; surveys will be given to the Facilitators and
the students once a month, starting in the startup August 2021. Ten short surveys will engage the
teacher, social worker, SROs, and students' progress. The coordinator/facilitator will share the
results with the teachers, social workers, SROs, and the students. The mid and final survey
results will be shared with the program gatekeepers. Furthermore, program data will allow the
Cook County Juvenile Detention Center to monitor and evaluate the program without Bias. The
data evaluation report will show the fidelity of the RJP program's progress and goals.
Outcomes Regarding Facilitators and Students
There are two crucial outcome measures that the Restorative Justice Program will apply
for the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center for evaluation.
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Behavior Outcomes from the Students' Perspective
The classroom expected behavior outcomes from the students' perspective experience in
the Restorative Justice Program:
• The Facilitator, teacher, social worker, Security Resource Officers are respectful when
talking about a student's feelings (Affective Statements)
• When a student has a dispute or a disorderly behavior problem, the Facilitator, teacher,
social worker, or Security Resource Officers respond proactively, asking the student
questions about what happened and how can the problem be resolved before inflicting
judgment and discipline (Proactive Questions)
• The Facilitator, teacher, social worker, or the Security Resource Officers ask the student
their thoughts and ideas when a decision needs to be made that affects the class (Fair and
Impartial Process)
• The Facilitator, teacher, social worker, Security Resource Officers use restorative justice
practices of lectures and training comprised of positive designed thinking concepts to
reinforce a positive outcome when there is a problem (Repair Harm)
• The Facilitator, teacher, social worker, and Security Resource Officers acknowledge the
student's feelings when a problem occurs (Management of Shame)
Behavior Outcomes from the Facilitator and Teacher Perspective
• Student behavior from the student following delinquency, suspensions, expulsion,
arrest, adjudication, juvenile detention, reported on a multi-item scale
• Student satisfaction or any measures of the victims and offenders' satisfaction with the
process of fair and impartial treatment regarding the outcome
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

• Perception of fairness of any measures that the victim or offenders' treatment received a
fair and impartial outcome
• Restitution compliance regarding measures of compliance with restitution by the student
to the victim and the Restorative Justice Program
• Reparation of harm measures of any reparation of harm inflicted beyond restitution,
receiving an apology or a letter of remorse
• Juvenile justice centers cost of any measure relating to the cost of the Restorative
Justice Program regarding the routine processing of the student

The Restorative Justice Practices is a therapeutic innovation phenomenon designed to
engage Black and Brown students and develop other reflective mediation strategies in a
classroom environment. These evidence-based strategies will foster mutually respectful
relationships for Black and Brown students' educational learning in urban schools and
American communities. The Culture of Competent Training and Implicit Bias Training for
teachers and Security Resource Officers are restoration practices that change participants'
mindsets to understand different cultures. The innovative program techniques will introduce
a healthy way in a much broader approach than harassment of minor infractions leading to
school suspensions, expulsion, and the criminal justice system.

51
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Appendix F
Restorative Justice Program/District 205
Responsible Party Consent Form
The Thornton Township High Schools District 205 (District 205), as the responsible party, must
receive consent from the student participant and the participant's parent/guardian to be part of the
Restorative Justice Program.
Student:
I authorize the Facilitator for my learning experience to facilitate student
number______________ as part of the Restorative Justice Program at Thornton Township High
Schools District 205. I permit the Restorative Justice Program to permit the Facilitator to access
my child, understanding that the Facilitator will not make copies of the file and only use the file's
information to facilitate the student learning experience. I request that the Restorative Justice
Program extend the time for resolving my disciplinary learning experience sufficiently for a
Restorative Justice Dialogue or Facilitators Manual designed lectures and training restorative
justice practices concepts to be held as part of the Restorative Justice Program. I waive any rights
I may have to my learning experience for timely disposition under the normal timeline for
disciplinary procedures at District 205. I give the facilitator permission to share this learning
experience's contents and any agreements generated as part of the restorative justice process with
select members, gatekeepers, and stakeholders in the Restorative Justice Program. I understand
the specific conversations engaged in as part of the pre-conference and conference processes will
be kept in the Restorative Justices Program's confidence. (Exceptions: If any party were to
threaten harm to themselves or others, the information would then be released to the appropriate
agency only to safeguard the welfare and safety of parties involved or the person threatened.
52
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Also, information may be released as required by law).
__________________________________________ ____________________________
*Printed Name of Student Participant Current contact number
__________________________________________ __________________
Signature of Student Participant Date
*If a student is under 18 years of age, a parent/guardian must consent to participate. Indicate
available times during each day: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Parent: I consent to the Facilitator for my son/daughter's learning experience to include the
Restorative Justice Program at Thornton Township High Schools District 205.
__________________________________________ ____________________________
Printed Name of Parent/Guardian Current Contact Number
__________________________________________ __________________
Signature of Parent/Guardian Date

53
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Appendix G
Project Implementation Methods
Reach and Aim of Implementation
Effectiveness
The training consisted of two groups of five. The facilitators training was one hour twice
a month from April to July. Each Restorative Justice Program trainee had a meeting with the
coordinator and the two assistant coordinator facilitators for one hour to discuss progress and
identify goals.
Maintenance Culture Competent Training
The facilitators watched 30-minute video sessions once a month and then received
training about situations where students of color experienced racial and discipline disparities.
The video sessions were a stimulus to remind the teachers, social workers, and SROs on what
happened in the past and the mission to eliminate these racial disparities. This training will
continue in the August 2021 startup allowing the coordinator/facilitator and Cook County
Juvenile Detention Center evaluators to measure program progress and achievement.
Evaluations and Implementation
Surveys will be given once a month, starting in the August 2021 Restorative Justice
Program startup. There are a total of 10 surveys. All ten are short and will engage the teacher,
social worker, SROs, and students' progress. The coordinator/facilitator will share the results
after each session. The mid and final survey results will be shared with the program gatekeepers.
Furthermore, program data will allow the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center to monitor and
evaluate the program without Bias. The data evaluation report will show the fidelity of the RJP
program's progress and goals.
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Gatekeepers Agreement for Implementation Ready
Adoption
The coordinator/facilitator and his three assistant coordinators training was at a gatekeeper's
location in the Calumet Park District in Calumet Park, Illinois, adopted and provided by former
Calumet Park Mayor, Mr. Joseph Dupar. Mr. Joseph Dupar is on the Board of Calumet
Township, in Calumet Park, Illinois, and he holds the Trustee Auditor's position on two Illinois
school districts: School District 132 Board of Education in Calumet Park, Illinois, and School
District 218 Board of Education in Riverdale, Illinois. Elementary School District 128 in
Riverdale, Illinois, is a feeder school to Thornton Township High Schools District 205.
Elementary School District 132 in Calumet Park, Illinois, is a feeder school to Dwight D.
Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Illinois, and Alan B. Shepard High School in Palos
Heights, Illinois. (Chart that demonstrates my sociopolitical Implementation framework process)
55
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

56
Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Thornton Township High Schools District 205
Appendix: H
Restorative Justice Program
Facilitators Manual
Implementation

When broadly and consistently implemented, restorative justice
practices will promote and strengthen positive school culture and
enhance pro-social relationships within the school community
Community

PROTOTYPE

Restorative justice practices emphasize the importance of positive
relationships as essential to building communities that involve
innovative processes that repair relationships when harm has
occurred
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Zero-Tolerance Policies in Urban America

Appendix: I- RJP Infographfic

Abstract (if available)

Abstract In Chicago, research shows that seventy-five percent of Black and Brown students who live in under-class communities attend the ""School-to-Prison Pipeline,"" experiencing ""Zero-Tolerance-Policies"" of suspensions, expulsion, and racial disparities. These are harsh discipline practices inflicted on students of color for minor behavior or dress code infractions, such as wearing their caps in the school, talking back to teachers, not having their homework, or not wearing their school uniform. The Prototype Facilitators Manual lectures and training consist of three designed thinking concepts of transformative training that addressed teachers, Security Resource Officers (SROs), and students to adapt to a safe, culturally school environment. ❧ Purpose of Prototype: The Facilitators Manual lectures and training allowed the teacher, social worker, and SROs to help students of color create a support system and provide a safe school culture environment. The target population is students living in underclass communities who have been terrorized and plagued with crime, drugs, and gang violence. The innovative training practice phenomenon engaged students and develop other reflective mediation strategies in a classroom environment. These evidenced-based strategies will continue to foster mutually respectful relationships for students educational learning in schools in Urban America. ❧ The Culture of Competent Training and Implicit Bias Racial Training for teachers and SROs are restoration practices that change their mindset to understand a different culture. The innovative program techniques introduced healthy ways in a much broader approach than harassment of minor infractions leading to school suspensions, expulsion, and incarceration.

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Asset Metadata

Creator King, Earl Barksdale (author)

Core Title Zero-tolerance policies in urban America

School Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Degree Doctor of Social Work

Degree Program Social Work

Publication Date 12/14/2020

Defense Date 11/12/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag behavior disorder and students of color,Black/Hispanic and Latino males,criminal justice terminology, racial disparities, and poverty,criminology,Cultural Competency Training and Implicit Bias,Design Thinking concepts practices,juvenile detention,OAI-PMH Harvest,Restorative Justice Program and Facilitators Manual,school-to-prison pipeline,security resource officers,system policies in criminal justice,system reform in the criminal justice system,Teachers,zero-tolerance policies

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Brooks, Devon (committee chair), Nair, Murail (committee member), Weiss, Eugenia (committee member)

Creator Email dr.ebking@comcast.net,ebking@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-413726

Unique identifier UC11668637

Identifier etd-KingEarlBa-9166.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-413726 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-KingEarlBa-9166.pdf

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Document Type Capstone project

Rights King, Earl Barksdale

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

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