LEWISTON — On March 1 Lewiston Middle School students were on a field trip, skating at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
A group of kids were huddled, talking. One boy’s jacket was on a railing, then fell on the floor landing in ketchup containers that had spilled, spreading a red mess on the floor.
Some kids laughed at the jacket getting dirty. The boy who owned the jacket said, “It’s OK. I don’t care.”
Then the kids took it a step further, deciding if he didn’t care about his jacket, they could get it really dirty.
“They got carried away and messed up the jacket,” said Lewiston Middle School Principal Jake Langlais. They smoshed his jacket in the ketchup. “They made a mess out of the jacket.”
A few years ago the boys would likely have been suspended or given detention. “Or, I could have brought them in and barked at them,” Langlais said.
That could have ended with the students walking away with different emotions, resentment, anger, humiliation.
That’s not how it went.
The next day the students were called together to talk about what happened and reflect on their action.
“They spoke to each other. Wrote an apology to the student. Then they read their apology to him, looked him in the eye and said, ‘I’m sorry,'” Langlais said. He wants to teach his students accountability and responsibility.
“That’s the restorative piece. In this case we avoided the traditional school consequences (detention or suspensions). If it can go full circle and we feel right about where it’s at, we avoid detention and suspensions.”
Detention still happens at Lewiston Middle School for minor things, not behaving in class, not following rules.
But before detention is handed out, teachers are being trained to take the time to identify what happened and talk to students about what could be done differently in the future, Langlais said.
The school is working to help students grow in their emotional maturity. The same kind of skills will help them maintain good relationships with others, including future spouses, Langlais said.
As more teachers get restorative practices training, fewer students are sent to the principal’s office because it’s handled in class, Langlais said.
Most days after school there are fewer students in detention. Some days no students are in detention, Langlais said.
