ABSTRACT
Roger and Donna state that disruptive behaviors in circle are not the result of complete disregard for the process; rather, they identify developmental challenges of teenagers acclimating to the process. Donna confirms that she initially wanted and still would “like for [circle] to always be perfect” but now understands that teenagers are developmentally at a different place as they are “by nature chatty”: “When I sit in circles with adults, everyone is very respectful and quiet, but it’s also. . . we’re all professionals sitting in a circle. We know how to hold our tongues and be appropriate. I kind of think that the talking and the buzz sometimes in circle is not necessarily a bad thing.” Although the assumption is often that being “appropriate” entails holding one’s tongue and acting like “professionals,” Donna acknowledges that teenagers like to talk and that their side conversations are not always “a bad thing.” Thus I observed Roger and Donna responding to disruptive behaviors in circle in multiple ways: by sternly, often calmly, reminding students of norms, flashing irritated looks, ignoring some of the “buzz” and cross talk and, on only a few occasions, by asking students to leave, as Roger did in a circle in early October on race:
Two students have just asked the circle to talk about a time when they were treated differently for their race. Roger has the piece and says he is “scrolling” through his mind to find a quick example. Damien, a baby-faced student with a brown, wavy ponytail, is seated to my left. As Roger thinks, Damien smiles at a girl across from him, interlocks his fingers together over his mouth and begins tweeting softly like a bird. Roger looks at him briefly, and Damien drops his hands.
“One time me and my girlfriend were paying for items at a convenient story in a largely white area. The cashier dropped the change in the air so as not to touch me,” says Roger, lifting his fingers in the air and separating them in reenactment. Students raise their eyebrows or cluck their tongues. Students share stories about police profiling.
“One cop stopped me the same time every day—for walking while Black,” says one young man. John says that cops handcuffed him instead 134of a young man who had robbed him. Raven says that she was trying to check out [Alice Walker’s] The Color Purple and [Sapphire’s] Push from the library, but a volunteer kept following her as though she was going to steal the books. Amidst these revealing anecdotes, Damien cops his two hands together, and makes another chirping sound—the noise is subtle, so much so that I’m not sure how long it has been going on.
Roger says to Damien calmly, “Go ahead and step outside.”
“Should I get my things?” asks Damien. His tone is innocent.
“Yes,” says Roger.
