Restorative justice too little too late for APS students

The leadership of the APS will spend $4.3 million dollars in an effort to make student discipline “more educational and less punitive”, link.  They're calling it restorative justice.  In this context, restore meaning, reestablish, repair, rehabilitate, rebuild, reconstruct, redevelop …

The fundamental premise; the students in question are, for whatever reason(s) both within and outside of their control, are in need of restoration. And, certainly, we should spend money on their restoration.

Much better; we spend money on prevention. It is a given; dollars spent on prevention go further than dollars spent on repair.

So how much money will APS spend over these same three years on any district wide effort to develop the character in students that might help them minimize their involvement in criminal activity?

The answer; nothing, not one thin dime, not one red cent.

However much sense it makes to offer students restorative justice, it makes exponentially more sense to offer students some training in beliefs and skill sets that will help them “just say no”.

If Thomas Paine was right;

if character is much easier kept than recovered,

then it seems prudent to invest in keeping students from the need to be restored in the first place.

The leadership of the APS will not invest in character education for at least two reasons;

1. Character (education) is not measured in standardized tests, and therefore any attention paid to developing character would necessarily lower test scores in math perhaps, and more importantly,

2. The leadership of the APS cannot find the character and the courage to talk openly and honestly about student standards of conduct; ethical standards of conduct, and their honest to God accountability them.

They are unwilling to admit to, and deal with, the double standards of conduct in the APS; students are expected to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct. School board members and senior administrators are manifestly unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

APS leadership in a familiar pickle ... begging and prevaricating

The leadership of the APS went to the people last night, seeking their support during a radio "call in" show.  They seek support in securing more money for their failing enterprise.

They did not take questions directly from stake and interest holders.  They never do.

They claim, according to Blogger Joe Monahan this morning, link, it was technologically impossible for them to take phone calls directly from listeners (without having to spend $2,600 on the technology that would have allowed them to take questions directly, not only during this show, but during every other call in show they will ever have.)

And, all you have to believe is that APS with all it's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technology and technology experts, cannot manage to play a phone call live into a microphone.

photo Mark Bralley

The Journal wrote about it before, link, and after link.  It appears clear that despite the change in editors-in-chief, the Journal will remain in the tank with the leadership of the APS.

"We don't know about an accountability crisis (in the leadership of the APS)"

Blogger Joe Monahan quoted me in a post this morning, link, on the abject lack of availability of the leadership of the APS to the communities and community members they serve.  I had concluded by pointing out;

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

To Joe, and those who don't "know" about an accountability crisis, knowing is as simple as;

1.  ask the leadership of the APS to produce any ethics or standards to which they regard themselves accountable in their public service, and then

2.   ask them to point to the due process(es) by which they can be held accountable to those ethics and standards.

For example; 

1.  Were the school board asked to point to any codes of ethics to which they claim accountability, they would have to name their own code of ethics; link.

2.  Were they then asked to point to any due process at all, by which they might be held accountable to their own code of ethics, they would be compelled to admit that there isn't any.

Ergo, because there are more, equally incontrovertible examples of their lack of honest to God accountability to any standards of conduct at all, even the law, there is an accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Because the media, the Journal in particular, are part of a cover up, it is fair to say that there is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis and scandal.

Current Journal Editor-in-Chief Karen Moses is the person I find most currently most culpable.  She and the Journal refuse to investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

If only to report that there is not one.

If only to report that school board members and senior administrators are honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in their public service.

Journal photo

Moses will not report upon the one
and,
she cannot report upon the other.