Profile Project: An Interview with my Neighbor Ms.

Orton
Cedar McD 4B 2010 Concurrent English. Ms. Call
March 4, 2024

I interviewed my neighbor, who we all call

Ms.Orton. She taught high school for 20 years in

the Jordan School District and also taught for 3

years in the Salt Lake City school district. She

explained many unique perspectives she has

gained over the years regarding restorative justice

in education. My research studies how restorative

justice affects education and high school students

in Utah. My question wonders if restorative

justice is effective in a positive way. I was lucky

to have the opportunity to sit down with Ms.

Orton and hear what she had to say regarding this issue she has had much experience with.

The first question I asked her was what her experience with restorative justice in schools was,

and how SHE would define restorative justice. She said, “Restorative justice is a take on justice

that focuses on repairing harm, giving back, and giving second chances.” She told me that

restorative justice is incorporated in schools often through student courts and programs allowing

kids to clear suspension off their records, by having them give back to the school community

instead (via service, apology, or other alternatives). She told me, “I was shocked to see just how

poor student behavior was when students and teachers returned from the pandemic. It was
something I had never experienced as an educator before. I just didn’t know what to do” She

continued by saying “And these issues are still prevalent today. It’s saddening to see the amount

of suspensions, expulsions, and dropouts there are in high schools everywhere now every year.”

When I asked about her own experience, she told me that when her son Carlton was suspended

his freshman year for getting involved in a fight, she was upset that his mistake followed him

forever for the rest of his high school career on his permanent record. She told me that she

started a program at a school she worked at that aimed to prevent kids from getting suspended,

and called it “Jordan Student Court”. With this she helped students clear their records and stay in

school rather than be suspended. She used restorative justice, by giving “sanctions” (aka positive

reinforcement style punishments) that helped the student learn their lesson and give back to their

school community. Ms. Orton told me she believes students who make mistakes should work to

give back to the school community after their mistakes, not just be exiled from their school

community through suspension. When I asked her if she thought this was sustainable, she told

me certainly. I wanted to see if restorative justice was proven to be effective outside of schools,

and found this fact from PIT journal that says, “A sample size of 619 offenders who participated

in victim-offender mediation restorative justice, researchers found that the tendency to reoffend

after these sessions was reduced by 32 percent.” I am curious to research further and see if

reoffending percentages also drop when restorative justice is tested in schools.

After learning about her background in this topic, I asked her the following question: “Do you

think Restorative Justice is always effective? If not, why?” She answered and told me that while

restorative justice is an effective tool for lots of kids to better their lives and get a second chance,

many kids often take advantage of it and use it to get out of trouble, and not make any real
change. Sometimes it just isn’t effective on certain students, and she told me many teachers

where she worked assumed it was “fluffy” and “didn’t do much than give a slap on the wrist for

something that should be taken seriously” she told me. I researched further on NEA research to

learn if restorative justice had benefits inside schools. I learned that schools with restorative

justice programs had 35% less student arrests in school. They also had 15% less students being

involved in out-of-school arrests. While 35% isn’t a huge number, it is still a positive change for

the better, and this fact supported Ms. Orton’s theories regarding restorative justice in education.

Ms Orton mentioned that the ideologies of restorative justice are two sided. Meaning, there can’t

be any repair done to a damaged school community if the one who damaged it isn’t willing to

restore it, and if someone isn’t there helping them do so. A lot of kids aren’t motivated enough to

work to get suspension off their record and participate in alternate options. However, on the flip

side, a lot of kids jump at the chance to give back and repair the mistakes they have made in a

way that benefits them and teaches them something. Ms. Orton told me that she believes it is

effective, but not always as it depends on the students’ attitude. Because the ideologies of this

justice approach is unconventional, a lot of students don’t enjoy it.

I also asked Ms. Orton “Does Restorative Justice directly help keep kids IN school?” She told

me absolutely. She told me that Restorative Justice in education almost always aims at limiting

suspension in schools. When a student is suspended, they aren’t attending school, and are just at

home. “This leads to students feeling even more exiled towards their school” she told me. I

found this point interesting, as programs like student courts often fight to keep kids IN school,

not to be pushed further away through suspension. A study from Harvard University backed this
up, saying that schools with implemented Restorative Justice practices had a whopping 82%

decrease in student expulsions.

I asked Ms. Orton about the idea of punishment and consequences next. I asked her if she

believes punishment and consequences are sometimes necessary instead of restorative justice.

She told me that many teachers have the mindset of “Criminals need Punishment” or in “teacher

language” as she put it, “Students need Consequences.” She believes that in very serious

scenarios, more serious consequences are necessary. However, in day-to-day student infractions

amid Utah high schools (vandalism, fights, vaping, truancy), she believes restorative justice

should always be a first option. It gives kids the option to approach their mistakes in a “positive

and vitalizing way” as she described it.

Overall, I enjoyed speaking to Ms. Orton took a lot from how she views restorative justice as a

tool in education across Utah. She connected it to her own experiences and provided me with lots

of very beneficial information for my research.

 OUTSIDE SOURCES CITED:

Bahna, Marianne. “Impacts of Restorative Justice on Recidivism.” PIT Journal,

pitjournal.unc.edu/2023/03/22/impacts-of-restorative-justice-on-recidivism/#:~:text=According

%20to%20a%20research%20brief,was%20reduced%20by%2032%20percent. Accessed 28 Feb.

2024.

Walker, Tim. “Do Restorative Practices Work?” NEA,

www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/do-restorative-practices-work. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

Xu, Brian. “The Powerful Potential of Restorative Justice in Education.” RRAPP, 9 Mar.

2023, rrapp.hks.harvard.edu/the-powerful-potential-of-restorative-justice-in-education/.