Lisa Hester, Director of Student Life at Boulder Creek Academy, Idaho, talked to L. A. Talk Radio host Lon Woodbury about how restorative justice circles in therapeutic boarding schools actually worked. She described how this procedure had been instrumental in 2012 in improving her entire school. Despite some early resistance by teachers to use this therapeutic program, it proved its value over time for the students.
Lisa Hester
Lisa Hester completed her undergraduate studies at Central Michigan University, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, with a minor emphasis in Psychology. She later went on to get a master’s degree in social work from the University of Denver. She has worked with children for more than 25 years, including participating in the child welfare system, offering sexual abuse therapy and family mediation. She has also worked as a coordinator in the foster care system.
Boulder Creek Academy
Boulder Creek Academy was created in 1993 to help struggling adolescent boys and girls whose demands were not being satisfied in traditional institutions. The therapeutic boarding school has a special education program that helps those pupils with academic, mental and emotional challenges. It is located on 180-acres at the base of the magnificent Cabinet Mountains in north Idaho. The institution serves students from around the United States, and it also has some international students.
Restorative Justice Circles in Therapeutic Boarding Schools
During the hour-long interview, Lisa Hester explained how Boulder Creek is using restorative justice circles to support students when they have a conflict with one another. The strategy affirms the inherent worth of every student. The process holds them answerable for misbehavior, while still empowering them with the obligation for solving their very own problems. Restorative justice provides students with practical tools for mending broken relationships and for developing mutual understanding and cooperation.
Corrective justice circles in therapeutic boarding institutions, she explained, are a substitute to punitive treatment for student misbehavior. These dialogue-based programs motivate young people to take responsibility for their activities, repair damage done to others, and improve and reinforce peer relationships. Zero-tolerance policies, she pointed out, only antagonizes students and staff.
Hester described the various components that go into the program. For example, circles are usually formed to talk about disciplinary problems, including disrespectful behavior, acting out in class, and creating incidents that could be considered bullying by others. Those with poorly established social skills are taught to use compassion and compromise. Besides describing the procedure of restorative justice circles in therapeutic boarding institutions, she shared stories where the program had been able to stop problems between students from escalating.
Lon Woodbury created Struggling Teens to help families. He has recorded the entire interview on his L.A. Talk Radio show for easy access at any time.
