As Tennessee’s Turnaround District Tries to Reduce Suspensions, Here’s How One School Is Rethinking Discipline
March 12, 2019
By: Caroline Bauman
Source: Chalkbeat
In a room of brightly colored motivational posters and yoga mats, two middle school students sit across from one another in a circle of comfy blow-up chairs, glaring at each other, and talking through an argument of name-calling that almost escalated to fist-throwing.
The boy, with his hoodie up and his eyes on the ground, says he felt that his classmate had disrespected him and his mother. The girl, leaning forward in her seat and with a loud voice, said she felt that he had overreacted to a joke. Neither was interested in apologizing, and when their bickering turned to yelling, their teacher sent them to the reflection room at Kirby Middle School in Memphis, where students are encouraged to resolve conflicts before they escalate.