ABSTRACT
In the fall of 2012, I began teaching middle school English in a disciplinary alternative school. The school serves students who have been suspended for primarily two reasons: behavioral problems or the sale or use of drugs, namely marijuana. I took the job with the hopes of envisioning how restorative justice could be applied in such an environment. I quickly realized that while the program was structured in restorative ways—equipped with high-quality teachers who had been teaching at the school for nearly a decade, educators who were passionate about not only improving student behaviors but inspiring students to excel academically at their home campuses—it was not the place for the kind of restorative justice work that took place at BHS and Equity—or so I thought. The main difficulty was the short amount of time that students spend at the school; a student who earns daily points for staying in dress code and following instructions could be out in as soon as six weeks.
