Restorative Practices Transform Milwaukee Public Schools

“Tingggggggg” the ringing of a chime fills the air. 

“You are my other me. If I do harm to you, I do harm to myself. If I love and respect you, I love and respect myself,” students recite a poem called In Lak’ech, translated from Spanish to English, by Luis Valdez.

The students then sit in a circle around a burning candle that rests at the center of a beautiful handmade table with the In Lak’ech poem on it. Atop the table are talking pieces. Talking pieces are objects that have special significance to the group or facilitator and they are used to allow each individual to have their own time to speak and be heard when they are holding it. 

They begin a land honoring where they talk about the land they are on. This part of Milwaukee is on the traditional land of the Potawatomi Ho Chunk and Menominee Nation and they honor all of the nations that live there. They also honor all of their ancestors who came unwillingly and willingly from any land. 

Next, they talk about their guidelines; to speak and listen from the heart, to maintain confidentiality and to respect the talking piece. Then a check in question is asked, which is usually about how they are doing and they continue with other questions and games.

The games are a reflection of who they are as people and how they react to situations. The games relate to the purpose and questions asked in the circle. After, they debrief to talk about what they noticed about themselves and other people. They end with a closing question that involves action, meaning something they are going to implement in their life. Lastly, they close how they began with the In Lak’ech poem.

Students from Alliance High School hold their community circles in this way. However, Heather Sattler, English and Restorative Practice teacher at MPS, says that circles can be done in a variety of ways. 

Sattler has been teaching 24 years and eight of them have included teaching restorative practice classes for juniors and seniors at Alliance high school. Circles have become a schoolwide practice because the juniors teach the freshman and the seniors teach the sophomores.

The older students create and facilitate quarterly community building circles at the school and lead them. Everyone in the school sits in a circle at the same time on the same day to participate. 

Sattler has also held staff circles and given them the training to incorporate restorative practices in their own classrooms. The sense of community at Alliance has greatly evolved since. 

“The circle is the heart of restorative practice, because that’s really the space where we develop a deep listening for ourselves and each other,” said Sattler. 

She believes that it is her work to teach young people how to hold the work of the circle and be the primary practitioners. 

“I have a vision that young people lead the work of restorative practices around our city, country and beyond,” said Sattler.

Sattlers students have traveled around the country to teach others. All of her classes go someplace each year. A few years ago, they went to Harvard for the Alumni of Color Conference and created a video to teach about their work and talk about how they believe that it helps dismantle structural oppression. 

They have also traveled to other colleges including North Western and Pittsburgh School of Law, in addition to co-facilitating other conferences. They recently traveled to Viroqua High School to host a workshop. 

COVID-19 has not hindered their achievements. They moved the circle online over Zoom for the quarantine and they host a community circle twice a month. 

Sattler and another adult facilitator, who usually focuses on collaborating with the justice system in Milwaukee, also travel to teach their work. Usually they take two seniors to assist. Last summer they went to Franklin County, Florida for the Concert Conservation Core Team.

“We really look at this as a way of being,” said Sattler. “I think it’s very important, when I’m working with adults, that I teach them to hold the work within themselves, practice with each other and then hold the space.”

She also said it was important to do the work with the people whom you’re working with and invite them to do the same. 

She said if you’re going to hold a circle you should have permission from the person who taught you if you’re going to teach others. She added that you should always honor where everything comes from. 

Sattler has gladly given permission to Antonio Butler, a 21-year-old former student, to facilitate circles in the community.  

Currently, he facilitates two circles a month over Zoom, but before the quarantine, he hosted community circles at Milwaukee libraries. Three different circles facilitated by Alliance students happened in three different libraries across the city each month, according to Butler. 

Butler has also facilitated repair harm circles or healing circles. They are a similar format, according to Butler. 

He said that if a student was in conflict with another student, a facilitator would have a conversation with each student separately to give them a space to feel through what is going on and give them what they need. Then, if both students want, they can be in a circle with each other. They talk about what happened, how they felt, who was affected and how they were affected. Most importantly they discuss how to mend the harm that was done. 

His favorite memory of a circle involved a student in his class who was having issues with not knowing who her biological mother was because she was adopted. They used a circle format to find out what she was dealing with. Not knowing her biological mother and not knowing why she was put up for adoption created a huge strain for her and Butler said it was a wonderful experience to be able to support her. 

“Restorative practices have really changed my mindset,” said Butler. 

Circlework has become a large part of Butler’s identity since he began practicing at age 16. He enjoys being able to help other people with challenging situations they go through in their lives. 

“I never thought that I would be able to become the person that I am today and I honestly don’t think that I would be, it wasn’t for the work that I do,” said Butler. 

Butler said he was bullied in middle school and was struggling to accept who he was and where he fit in. When he came to Alliance his freshman year the circles and overall community of the school helped him immensely. 

Sattler introduced Butler to circle work and when he became a circle keeper he said it gave him the opportunity to look at himself in a light that was non-judgmental and in a way that was healing. 

“I was able to reflect on some of the actions I did and was able to determine in my subconscious what was making me make certain decisions and causing me to act certain ways,” said Butler. “It was just a really helpful way for me to reflect on myself.” 

Now knowing himself better, he enjoys opening up spaces where everyone feels respected and able to speak what’s in their heart without judgement. 

Andrew DeLutio, Restorative Practices Coordinator, also believes that students should have a non-judgemental space to be supported and build relationships, but he prefers a less traditional education setting. 

DeLutio works for the MPS Violence Prevention Program at the MPS Success Center which collaborates with the Marquette Center to implement restorative practices for students in an educational environment. 

Fourth through seventh grade students who need behavior support in the MPS schools get referred to the MPS Success Center. While there, students learn how to navigate their behavior in school settings with the ultimate goal of transitioning back to their original school. 

At the Success Center, the relational approach is most important, according to DeLutio. Behavioral students are not suspended when they do something wrong, instead they build trusting and meaningful relationships with staff at the Success Center and learn to communicate about their actions and thoughts.  

In a typical school setting, students do not learn about conflict. DeLutio said schools should provide the opportunity for students to learn about themselves and others. 

“School learning and learning about relationships should not be two separate pieces,” said DeLutio.

DeLutio and the staff at the Success Center teach students how to value themselves and others. 

“The Success Center approaches school differently by showing students that support for them is the most important,” said DeLutio.

A traditional day at the Success Center is much different than a typical public school day. Students check in with a staff member by talking about how the evening the night before went and discussing what the day at school is going to be like.

They then go into the office and lock up their things. After that, they transition to circle or team building games and start learning about core subjects. 

Throughout the day, they have “brain breaks” where they can go to the gym, outside or use the sensory rooms that have matts, puzzles, and fidgets to help students relax. Music therapy, art and yoga are also available.

If a conflict arises, which DeLutio said they do frequently, staff deals with it much differently than in a traditional school. Students are not sent to the office or threatened with a call to their parents. 

Instead, the staff allow the students to walk away. Another supervisor then goes to check in on them while the rest of the class continues their activity. 

DeLutio said he and the student often walk and talk to allow any anger to decline. He gains context of what happened, validates them with no judgement and asks what they feel needs to happen to make it better. 

Once he feels anyone involved in the conflict is ready, the students are brought together to have a conversation and use a talking piece. The conversation follows the general guidelines of a repair harm circle.

“The traditional school system is not flexible,” said DeLutio. 

Traditional schools do not deal with conflict in the same way and they often put learning about curriculum first. Relationships are at the core of that makes the Success Center restorative, according to DeLutio.