Skinner is a national leader in Restorative Practices. We implemented RP at Skinner in 2007. We are fortunate to have two Restorative Practices Coordinators, Allison Horton and Alicen Nico. Ms. Horton has been with the Skinner family since 2014, and Ms. Nico joined our family in 2021.
At Skinner we aim to help students develop communication skills and guide them in learning how to resolve conflict through restorative means. Our focus on building these skills within our student body helps our students enter high school as well-rounded, active citizens in our community.
We believe Skinner’s restorative school culture is what sets us apart from other middle schools. So what is restorative practices all about? Our restorative school culture means we focus on relationship building among our students and staff. Restorative is synonymous with accountability and opportunity. Through relationship building and through conflict we are given the chance to teach our students how to identify behaviors that cause harm, how to accept responsibility for that harm, and how to use creative solution-focused actions in order for the offender to make things right. The restorative process seeks to identify everyone involved and provide opportunities for those most affected by the behavior to be heard and play an active role in deciding how the situation will be made right.
A restorative process at Skinner can come in many forms. From Learning Family to Socratic seminars, restorative is used as a preventative and inclusive tool in the classroom. Students may also be involved in circle work with an academic focus or in response to a class-wide issue. Mediations between students, between staff or between students and staff are used as well.
Skinner has been recognized nationally for our work with restorative practices. We have been selected to be a part of several partnerships in order to promote sustainable restorative practices in schools.
We served on the Denver School-Based Restorative Practices Partnership, a coalition that includes Advancement Project, Denver Classroom Teachers Association, Denver Public Schools, National Education Association and Padres & Jóvenes Unidos. Through our involvement with the partnership we helped create a comprehensive implementation guide for schools to access how to effectively bring restorative practices into their own building. We helped to create this RP one-pager document. We also hosted full day site visits on our campus so that other educators, community members and families can get a comprehensive look at how Skinner has grown into the restorative school we are today.
Our student-led restorative club, Restorative Justice League (RJL) has been busy building community as well. In 2019 RJL was selected to present at the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice national conference. Here is a video of our presentation. Students in RJL also created a video to help people who would like to facilitate a community building circle. Check out their Community Building Circles 101 video.
“I’m sorry is a statement. I won’t do it again is a promise. How do I make it up to you is a responsibility.” –Anonymous