Abstract:
Bullying, harassment, anti-social behaviour, drug abuse-in recent years many safety issues
concerning student behaviour confront school authorities. How should schools respond to
behaviour that threatens school safety? Much discussion surrounds school responses and the
levels of stand-downs, suspensions and expulsions. There is debate also concerning the preemptive
measures, such as searching and drug testing, introduced by schools in an attempt to
guard against such behaviour. The question needs to be asked: Why do young people behave badly
in school? Is it that the majority of students feel that schooling is something that is ‘done to them’
rather than a process in which they are active valued and significant participants? Should schools be
moving towards more meaningful involvement of students not only in building the school
community but also in solving problems within that community? There is a currently a great deal of
research in New Zealand and the comparative jurisdictions concerning both the teaching of
citizenship in formal education and the introduction of school cultures which embrace the right to
participation of young people. This article picks up on the theme of citizenship in schools by
considering processes by which conflict and safety issues may be dealt with by the school
community as a whole, based on the restoration of relationships rather than punishment. It looks
particularly at restorative justice practices such as peer mediation in the case of student conflict and
school community conferencing.
