In an attempt to reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the number of out of school suspensions at Lyons Township High School, next year the school will establish what school officials are calling a Restorative Intervention Room at both LTHS campuses and hire two specialists, as well as two paraeducators, to staff the rooms.
Most students who currently or in the past have received in school or out of school suspensions will be assigned to the Restorative Intervention Room where the focus will be reflection, restorative practices, and keeping up with academics.
LTHS is not planning to completely eliminate out-of-school suspensions which, along with placement in alternative schools, would be used only for the most serious cases such as life-threatening situations and drug sales.
“There will be some instances that the intervention room will not be used,” said LTHS Principal Jennifer Tyrrell at the March 18 school board meeting when the school board voted 5-0 to approve the staffing request for the Restorative Intervention Room.
Tyrrell explained the reasons for establishing the new program.
“We want to significantly reduce the amount of out of school suspensions that we have, reduce the amount of exclusionary discipline but if something was significantly extreme this may not be an option as a response to that type of situation,” Tyrrell said.
The two new certified staff to run the rooms will have a background in counseling or social work and have an expertise in restorative practices. Services and activities in the room will be tailored to each individual student assigned to the room and the day will be highly structured and consist of a variety of activities.
“Those learning experiences within that space are going to be structured and tailored to the students and to the situation so there will be a lot of different types of work that’s done: conversations, restorative circles, accountability projects, opportunity for students to reflect and work with our amazing staff and the specialist who really has a level of expertise within those practices,” Tyrrell said. “There’s actually a higher level of accountability,” Tyrrell told the school board.
School board members seemed sensitive to how the room and the push to significantly reduce suspensions will be received by the community. School board vice-president Jill Grech said the room will be more rigorous for students assigned to it than an out of school suspension.
One reason to switch to a Restorative Intervention Room is that the state of Illinois is trying to reduce or eliminate exclusionary discipline, suspensions and expulsions, because they are seen as ineffective and harmful to students and lead to more dropouts.
Another more LTHS specific factor is that the school has been among the top 20 school districts in Illinois that have the most racial disproportionality in exclusionary discipline. To be on that list a school must have at least 20 cases of exclusionary discipline in a school year. Tyrrell told the school board that, with the Restorative Intervention Room, it is unlikely that LTHS would have 20 cases in a year so serious that they would require out of school discipline so LTHS could get off the list. Schools on the list must submit an improvement plan detailing changes in policy and practices that address the racial disparity.
