Students Transform Tense Oakland School Board Meeting Over Budget Cuts into A Circle

On Jan, 23, 2019, #Oakland #RestorativeJustice facilitators Eric Butler and Cece Jordan helped students transform a room filled with hundreds of protesters - who came to fight the Oakland Unified School District board over expected budget cuts - into a peace circle. The event was unprecedented in school board history.
With Cece Jordan facilitating, a couple dozen students created a space in which they could speak candidly and tearfully about the harm they're experiencing at the hands of adults. The students invited the entire school board to sit with them in circle, and despite sporadic jeers and taunts from adults at the gathering, several school board members declared the circle "a safe space", and shared their own personal stories of harm and struggle.
Toward the end of the circle, School Board Director James Harris said that he, and nearly all the other school board members, agreed the traditional school board meeting format is not working and committed to change the way decisions are made in the district.
**CLARIFICATION: Please note that the video says at 01:00 "this is the first circle attempted at a school board meeting". However, a few years ago, during a board meeting, and under a previous superintendent, two students planned and facilitated a community-building circle with the Board and OUSD RJ staff.****
The event followed the Oakland Premiere on Jan. 15 at McClymonds High School, of CIRCLES, A Restorative Justice documentary, which follows the struggles of Eric Butler to bring #restorativejustice to Ralph Bunche high school in West Oakland, even as his own teenage son is wrongfully detained and beaten in jail. The discussion at the screening, hosted by school board Vice President Jumoke Hinton Hodge, inspired the 100+ audience to take action.
Watch highlights here: / 307623193203885
Learn more at www.circlesmovie.com
On Facebook: @restorativejusticefilm
#circlesmovie #circlessavelives #ousdrj #rj #dontcloseroots #ousd #restorativepractices
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[@zackm8399]

Lol they’re all being coached!! Wtf!!