On Board Online • September 3, 2018

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer

As a roomful of principals, teachers and school social workers sat in circles of six or eight, they took turns sharing bits of personal information about themselves: "I play guitar in a band," "I have four grandchildren," and "I'm a guy who loves cats." It was hard, at first, to see what the exercise had to do with the subject of the training: "restorative justice."

Restorative justice, after all, is best known among school people as an idea that opens up alternatives to suspensions and other traditional forms of punishment for misbehavior in school, including bullying, verbal abuse, violence and other disruptions.