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Restorative Justice

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Peer Jury & Restorative Justice

We’re trying to start a Peer Jury Council, which is basically giving some kids the opportunity to connect with other kids their ages and trying to figure out what’s going on in school, why some don’t want to strive for the best and why they aren’t doing as good as they could do. [We're working on] not just moving the problem but trying to solve the problem [of disengaged students]. We’re trying to change students’ ideas about coming to school. We want them to be able to come to school and be in an environment where they feel safe enough to go to class and safe enough to interact with everyone in the school. This is all to fulfill our mission statement, and that’s to create a more inspiring and respectful school environment. Another student group came in today and we had a discussion. We read them our proposal for the Peer Jury campaign that we’re planning to do. We had a lot of good feedback, and they liked the proposal. We explained to them what we’ve been working on and how we would like them to help us, so that we can work together for one solution. Next we will be working on the handbook for the whole peer jury council. We’re going to try to draw in some ideas [from this meeting] to add to the Peer Jury and we’re going to have another meeting with these students to kind of put that together. Then hopefully from there we can start piecing this together and get the principal and administration involved.

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Tyrell

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Sleeping during Class

A student sleeping during class, bored doing school.

Photographer:

Daniel

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Vandalism

This is an example of school vandalism in the first floor boys' restroom, at Washington Metropolitan of Washington, D.C. A popular hang-out spot during class, it's not unusual to find these all over the school. This makes me feel like there is no respect for a place that's supposed to be clean.

Photographer:

Eugene

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On the Phone

Editor's Note: Eugene took this photo to show that students are often on the phone and in the hallways during class time. He and his peers used photos like this one to talk about the issue of student engagement and to propose a Peer Jury and Restorative Justice program in order to provide the opportunity for students to work together and build a stronger school community.

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Eugene

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The Road to Success

This picture was taken at The Washington Metropolitan High School after the bell. There are usually hallways filled with students and this causes teachers to stop class and check the hallways to make sure no one's there. This is a big problem in our school. This problem affects students such as myself who are already in class learning. This will affect us in the long run.

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Sharon

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A Quiet Moment

This shows how a math teacher values his time to grade work and other stuff that teachers do. Often, there are fights and rude students that won't let him teach his class or give students help when they need it. It's cool that he has a quiet moment every once in awhile.

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Daquan

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Using Photos to Explain

Editor's note: Tyrell and Michele show their photos to more than a dozen peer leaders to discuss the issue of student engagement at their school. Their solution was to create a Peer Jury and Restorative Justice program so that students could discuss concerns with other students and hold one another accountable.

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Critical Exposure

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Proposing a Peer Jury

Editor's note: Eugene, a Critical Exposure student leader, outlines the proposal for a Peer Jury.

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Critical Exposure

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