Date of Award

Spring 4-8-2025

Degree Type

Restricted Access Capstone

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

School Psychology

First Advisor

Pamela Fenning

Abstract

The prevention of school violence does not occur in a vacuum, nor does one intervention alone decrease or eliminate school violence. Rather, the climate of the school has the greatest impact on students’ ability to peacefully resolve conflicts. Additionally, exclusionary discipline practices, such as suspensions and expulsions, do not work at reducing violence or improving the school climate, instead exclusionary discipline creates a negative school climate and can lead to increases in school violence (Hirschfield, 2018). Restorative practices have many elements that can improve school climate, increase positive student behavior, decrease violence, and decrease suspensions and expulsions. Peer mediation falls within the second tier of restorative supports. Peer mediation gives students the opportunity to resolve conflicts before they escalate and allows for students to take greater responsibility for behavioral choices. Suburban Central High School, a Latinx high school, has a high number of students suspended and expelled. Through an implementation plan Suburban Central staff will work collaboratively to implement a peer mediation program as one element of restorative practices to improve the school climate and decrease suspensions and expulsions.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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