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We Must Pair Raise the Age with Restorative Justice


mayor de Blasio restorative justice

Mayor de Blasio in a restorative circle (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor’s Office)


There has been a great deal of celebration following passage of “Raise the Age,” legislation in New York that will end the practice of trying 16- and 17-year-old criminal defendants as adults. And rightfully so -- this will go a long way to dam the school-to-prison pipeline; we should be cheering. But rarely does a key strategy that helps students make better decisions and avoid arrest make headlines: restorative justice.

Like our justice system, our schools need to move away from overly punitive consequences and invest the resources to implement practices that address the root causes of misbehavior and set students on a path to long-term success.

Students need supports, not suspensions, to grapple with the larger problems that often lead to their misconduct. Students who have experienced trauma come to school carrying emotional baggage that impacts how they act in class. In low-income communities, such as the one I have served for six years, it is not uncommon for students to have suffered trauma from poverty, violence, and discrimination. I have a student who has bounced around foster families. Another student witnessed his dad get beaten by gang members. Relying on inflexible, insensitive, zero-tolerance discipline policies only compounds the mental, emotional, and academic damage from trauma and does not give students the tools to deal with challenges constructively and overcome them.

Even as New York has made a huge push to reduce suspensions, little has been done to support educators like myself to learn alternatives, such as restorative justice practices. Three years ago, I transitioned from my role as a math teacher to a dean. Teachers would send misbehaving students to my office, and I would hear their infraction, and unaware of alternatives, I would administer the punishment school protocol decided was appropriate. But after my first year, I knew detentions and suspensions were not having a long-term impact on student behavior. Unsure of a better way to handle discipline, I leaned on my abilities to foster relationships with students that I had honed as a teacher. As I began to see success with this approach, I sought out methods that leveraged relationships to improve behavior and stumbled on restorative practices.

The restorative approach to discipline is anathema to most educators’ training, and making the shift from punitive to restorative takes time, training, and buy-in.

Although my district offered little guidance, I knew I had to initiate this change for the sake of my students. In my free time I watched restorative justice videos on YouTube and attended external professional development. Transitioning from a punitive mindset, in which I evaluated a child’s misstep and doled out the commensurate consequence, to a restorative mindset, in which I sought to understand and address the cause of the misstep, was transformative. But it was also a difficult journey that could have been made easier with assistance from the district.

Now when students enter my office, they come in knowing we will have restorative conversations seeking to get to the root of the issue that brought them there. Students take responsibility for their actions and together we determine how to heal the situation.

An example of this was a recent fight between two high school students. Instead of suspensions, together they worked on a powerpoint on the perils of fighting and presented their findings to an eighth-grade group. Through this activity, the students learned from their mistakes, repaired the damage, and took responsibility to share their knowledge. That is the power of restorative justice; a suspension could never have achieved these outcomes. Interventions like these have reduced our suspensions by 55 percent. Imagine the difference if every school used restorative justice, and if the resources were there to help them do it.

But the beauty of restorative justice is not just the numbers, it’s the relationships. My teachers have seen the power of these relationships, and are taking it upon themselves to bring restorative justice to their classes. Now educators, and even student leaders, are spearheading restorative justice practices in my school. But they, and others around the state, need help. It’s time that New York build on it’s Raise the Age reforms by training our teachers in positive behavioral interventions that keep our kids in schools, not prisons.

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Barry Price has been a math teacher, dean, and basketball coach for 11 years and is a member of Educators for Excellence-New York.

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Every Child Needs Access to Mental Health Services


school guidance counselors kipp

(Dr. Thelma Dye, the author)


Prince Harry’s recent admission he is seeking treatment to come to terms with his mother’s death made headlines across the globe and for good reason. As recently as 20 years ago public opinion polls here in the U.S. found more than half the country believed depression was a sign of personal or emotional weakness. So when one of the world’s most recognizable and influential figures says not even a royal is immune to mental health challenges, it can have a significant impact.

Harry, along with his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have started an advocacy campaign to remove the stigma of mental illness worldwide, primarily aimed at reaching the younger generations. Given that two out of every three children experience a traumatic event by their 16th birthday, this effort couldn’t have a better audience.

In working with children and families for more than 20 years here in New York City, I have seen firsthand how addressing mental health issues at an early age leads to better learning outcomes, stronger family relationships, and improved life outcomes. It’s not a secret that mental health is as critical as physical health in a child’s long-term development, and child psychiatrists see that every day in their work.

But advocacy alone won’t be enough to protect the countless children, including many in our own city, who fly under the radar. Untreated mental illness disproportionately affects communities of color. In fact, African-Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. In our schools, these are the kids most often labeled as “behavior problems” and disproportionately represented in our suspension and dropout rates and in our criminal justice system.

Over the past several years, New York City has started to take some important steps towards identifying and supporting the mental health needs of students, but of course we need an even more committed effort.

For example, Northside Center, which I lead, recently announced a partnership with CVS to expand Clinic in Schools, an initiative that provides in-school mental health services and referrals for families. In the ten schools in which we currently work, we have seen great strides in treatment for children with anxiety and depression. The partnership will allow us to expand our services more comprehensively in the ten schools we currently serve with an eye on expansion to more schools as space and funding permit.

In addition, First Lady Chirlane McCray recently expanded her ThriveNYC program, which provides free mental health services to children ages 0-5 throughout the city. These kinds of programs make a significant difference for the individuals they serve. Schools with full-time social workers and other mental health services report fewer classroom disruptions, lower suspension rates and absenteeism. And we know the more time children spend in school learning, the more likely they are to have better academic outcomes.

But we also know there are more than 1,700 public schools and a million school kids across the five boroughs, and many are slipping through the cracks.

Mayor de Blasio’s new “3-K” initiative holds tremendous potential in this area. By getting students into formalized education programs at three years old, we can identify and address learning and behavioral challenges even earlier – issues that if left unattended often become major barriers to achievement as these children grow up. As with any health issue, prevention is the most effective treatment.

Despite all this progress, I worry about the future. We don’t know how federal health care and Medicaid reforms will affect mental health services for our most vulnerable citizens nor the impact on insurance plans that already undervalue the importance of these treatments. Any program that increases the number of uninsured Americans bodes poorly for our health as a nation.

We’ve come a long way as a country in recognizing that mental illness is a common and treatable disease. New public opinion polls show two-thirds of the population view mental illness as a very serious health concern. If depression and anxiety can alter the life path for years of a man like Prince Harry, imagine what it does to a child who doesn’t have the advantages he does. It’s time we turn this increased awareness into action. We can start by making stronger connections for decision-makers that show mental health translates into school, career, and life success, and not just for royals but for everyone.

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Dr. Thelma Dye is executive director at Northside Center for Child Development.

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Improving Elevator Safety in New York Must Be a Priority Now


elevator repair


Ten percent of the country’s elevators exist in New York State, and of that ten percent, a majority operates in New York City, where the many millions of us rely on elevators and other mechanical modes of transportation to get us safely to and from work and home.

Which is why when the New York City Comptroller issues an audit finding that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) fails to properly maintain its elevators and escalators, we have to pause and think about how we can solve this issue to not only keep our city running effectively, but to do so safely.

This is not the only state or city agency to be called out by elected officials for widespread elevator safety issues. The New York State Comptroller released a similar audit finding the State University of New York (SUNY) system fails to meet elevator maintenance and safety standards. And the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has been found to have similar, but more severe elevator safety issues including critical injuries and fatalities of residents and workers.

The answer to these extensive and dangerous issues throughout the city and state rests in the hands of the New York State Legislature with the Elevator Safety Act.

You may be surprised to hear that New York does not currently require people working on elevators to receive any education, training, or licensing. That means unscrupulous contractors can send their employees to work in multi-story elevator shafts with high-voltage, highly technical machinery without providing them the necessary training they need to protect themselves or the riding public.

The Elevator Safety Act would mandate licensing and set minimum standards for training – the kind of training that lets a worker spot an issue, potentially lethal at that, before it’s too late. This necessary training would directly impact both the effectiveness and safety of elevators in our state by ensuring the people building and working on them do the job right and do it safely.

We must take action to protect elevator workers and riders alike by requiring that New York’s elevator workers receive the proper training and licensing to keep our state’s elevators -- and their riders -- in safe, working condition.

For five years in a row now, the state Assembly has passed this critical piece of legislation and Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised to sign it into law. But standing in the way are the de Blasio administration and special interests in the State Senate.

Now, more than ever, those in a position of leadership must recognize the need for action, and call for the immediate passage of the Elevator Safety Act.

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Lenny Legotte is Business Manager of the International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 1 and Chairman of the NYS Committee on Elevator Safety.

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