VIOLENT INCIDENT
Who We Are: RJ4sch and Youth Resilience UK CIC are independent restorative practitioners who have extensive experience in delivering conferencing, support and training to schools within the UK and Europe. We have a small team of practitioners and have been established for over 14 years, we are also registered training providers with the Restorative Justice Council. We have worked widely within Education, Youth Justice and the residential looked after child setting. Our Director Lynne Russell is also a director of Youth Resilience UK CIC alongside our Lead Trainer Kelly Walker.
What we were asked to do: Provide a virtual observation to assess whether a Restorative Justice Conference would help to resolve a serious violent incident that had occurred between two pupils. This incident took place during school hours and the actions that had taken place had breached to a level that the police could have been called in as a criminal offense had taken place.
What had happened: There was ongoing issues between the two pupils involved in the situation, including goading from one part throughout the day of the incident. This continued goading and interpretation of wrongdoing had left the other pupil feeling so angry and mad that they exploded at them and the violent and aggressive incident occurred. There were several missed opportunities from both the staff and pupils throughout the day which lead up to the ultimate consequence of violence and aggression.
Restorative Justice conferencing: This took place between the two involved pupils and their person of support. For the pupil who committed the violent act it was brought to our attention during preparation that there was a history of childhood trauma. And as a result he felt it was an appropriate way to deal with conflict.
There was several preparation meetings that took place via zoom prior to the conference, Including prep with the support personnel of the pupils. This allowed a relationship to form between Kelly and the pupils involved. This meant that when it came around to the conference they had enough trust in the relationship that they were able to effectively move on with the process of the conference.
The conference then took place involving both students and their support personnel. We reached a full resolution for the incident and the two pupils were able to re-integrate into class and continue with their learning appropriately.
Follow up from the conference: Kelly has had 4 meetings with the two pupils since the conference and they have been well since, there has been little to no conflict involving the boys since, with no conflict between the two of them.
