A Positive Approach to Reducing School Violence

Troi Bechet, a local actress and singer who also works at Neighborhood Housing Services, runs the community conferencing program at Walter L. Cohen High School.

Walter L. Cohen High School was just beginning to come back after Katrina when it was dealt a public relations blow.  A National Geographic documentary filmed at the school called it “the most dangerous high school in the country.”

“There is a violent culture at the school,” said Alex Hochron, the school’s academy leader.

Since then, the school has taken on a redesign project.  A new administrative staff is turning the school into a Health Sciences Academy, one of six new academies at New Orleans public high schools.  But perhaps the most innovative program at the school is one that takes a different approach to dealing with violence.

“Community conferencing is a form of restorative justice,” said Erin McQuade of Neighborhood Housing Services.  “The goal is to repair the harm that’s been committed, not to punish the offender.”

Troi Bechet, a local actress and singer who also works at Neighborhood Housing Services, runs the community conferencing program at the school along with two other NHS staff.  While NHS has traditionally focused on issues related to housing, they have greatly expanded their services over the past few years, thanks in large part to two 2-year grants from the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

“Community conferencing empowers young people by giving them an opportunity to solve their own problems,” said Bechet.

When a violent incident occurs at the school, a community conference is called.  Everyone involved - perpetrator, victim, parents and families, teachers and staff - sits in a circle and talks about what happened from their standpoint.  The result is a covenant signed between the victim and the perpetrator - an agreement, reached by all involved, about how to repair the damage done.

“By seeing how their actions impact others, they’re able to come to an understanding which never would have occurred if they had just been kicked out of school,” said Bechet.  “By having them think it through themselves, they’re learning self-control and responsibility to correct the harm they’ve caused.”

“Our students may make the same mistakes any high school student could make, but they don’t always have the same safety net,” said Hochron.  “This program makes it possible for them to find alternatives to violence, to work together.”

“Some of the students have started calling our coordinator ‘the circle lady,’ and they’re starting to come to her before tensions escalate into a confrontation,” said Bechet.

“Usually it’s just a miscommunication,” said McQuade.

In the first semester of last school year, there were 55 violent incidents at the school, whereas in the first semester of this school year, when the program was first implemented, there were only 21.

Hochron notes that teachers regarded the new program with serious scrutiny at first, and some parents have been surprised by how different it is from the punitive approach they were used to.  But now, staff are using community conferencing to resolve their own conflicts.  And some of the parents who entered a circle with skepticism ended up suggesting that their daughters close the conference by hugging each other and apologizing.

“The girls agreed to eat lunch together once a week so the other students could see it was over,” said Hochron.  “Two months later, there have been no more incidents.”