Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 33

HIGHLIGHT: RJOY AND OAKLAND
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
FANIA DAVIS, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR OAKLAND YOUTH (RJOY), CO-FOUNDER &
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Why was Restorative Justice for Oakland
Youth (RJOY) formed and how did RJOY bring
Restorative Justice into Oakland schools?
We created RJOY because we wanted to shift the
culture in Oakland away from knee-jerk punitive
responses to youthful wrongdoing that replicate harm
instead of healing it. From the beginning, we had a
triple focus: sow the seeds of Restorative Justice (RJ)
in our schools, communities, and juvenile justice
system.
Former Oakland City Council member Nancy Nadel,
Oakland community activist Aeeshah Clottey, and
I founded RJOY in 2005. That same year we gave a
RJ training. One of the attendees was a counselor
at Cole Middle School (Cole). She was taken with
RJ. On a volunteer basis, she conducted some
circles at Cole Middle, which quickly resulted in
good outcomes such as elimination of violence and
reduced suspensions and expulsions. Nancy was
impressed by this data. With her assistance, RJOY
applied for and received a Measure Y grant to launch
pilot a program at Cole in 2007. Measure Y provides
funding in Oakland for violence prevention programs
for high-risk youth and young adults. Measure Y
continues to fund our work in two West Oakland
schools today.

What are the goals of RJ in a school?
When implemented as a whole school approach, the
goal is to effect a culture shift where all members of
the school community respond to conflict in healing
instead of punitive ways. Instead of punishing and
excluding the young person who breaks school
rules or causes harm, RJ seeks to involve all affected
persons in a shared process to address needs, fulfill

obligations, and repair the harm that was caused.
The essence of the work is relationship building and
community building. So we do a lot of proactive
work meant to create a strong, healthy, and nurturing
school community where students and teachers
can thrive. Of course, to be successful, family and
community engagement is an important piece.
What schools must understand is that RJ is not a
program for their “bad” kids; RJ is for the entire
school and community. RJ is for the teachers, the
site administrators, the school security officers,
the students and their families because everyone
contributes to the climate inside the school and
student behavior management. If we do an excellent
job, eventually the school will no longer need RJOY
to be present in the school because the members of
the school community themselves are carrying the
work forward.
The culture shift that is the goal of whole school RJ
is expressed in a number of ways. For instance at
Bunche High School, after two and one-half years
of RJ, the school went from being one where fights
and suspensions were commonplace to one where
violence has been eliminated and suspensions have
been nearly eliminated. Racial disparity in discipline
has also been eradicated. Neither a single individual
nor a single program could ever be the driver of these
outcomes. There are no longer fights at this school
because the whole school community is actively
engaged and united.

How did you convince the administration at Cole
Middle and other schools to allow RJOY to come
into the schools?
It’s all about relationship-building, consistently doing

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