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December 13 • 2018
jn
“We should be more forthright
and public, considering the hate acts
happening around the country,” Efros
said. “Keeping things like this quiet is a
dangerous thing.”
Looking at long-term solutions,
school officials say the problem may
stem from the fact that the ninth
grade is comprised of the melding of
three middle schools across a wide
geographical area. Typically, there are
more Jewish families living on the west
side of the district and fewer living on
the east side. In total, 1,800 students
attend BHHS.
RESTORATIVE PRACTICE
According to Good, the
school seeks to mend
the culture within the
school with a new social
science called Restor-
ative Practice, which
may also be used in
Shira Good
lower middle school
grades. In a school set-
ting, restorative practices are rooted
in restorative justice. They emphasize
repairing the harm done to people and
relationships, rather than punishment.
When dealing with incidents of hate
or racism in a school setting, Good
said that past tactics, such as holding
large assemblies, have proven ineffec-
tive. She said instead the district will
employ Restorative Practice, where
small groups of students, including
victims and their perpetrators with
the guidance of a trained school staff
member, look each other in the eye
and have honest conversations.
Good added that such sessions
occur after a student has served sus-
pension time, if needed. A student
must attend these sessions as part of
his or her return to school.
“In these scenarios, students learn
that their words and actions matter,”
she said. “Many students cannot find
individual strength in speaking up
alone. They need facilitated conver-
sations. With Restorative Practice,
students feel like they have a voice and
a seat at the table and this increases
the chance of repairing relationships
and repairing the culture in a school or
community setting.”
RABBIS, ADL WEIGH IN
Rabbi Josh Bennett of Temple Israel
in West Bloomfield, who met with
Hollerith last week, released a state-
ment saying he was proud of the
“It is important
to remain
indivisible as we
confront growing
bigotry.”
— RABBI BRENT GUTMANN
administration’s swift response to the
anti-Semitic events and its continuing
work with the ADL and clergy.
“They have supported the victims
and now are working to re-establish
the community to wholeness through a
restorative process of healing,” he stat-
ed. “We will continue to work with the
district to find ways to teach tolerance
and to eradicate hate.”
Rabbi Brent Gutmann of Temple
Kol Ami in West Bloomfield also met
with Hollerith, discussing such ideas as
creating a freshman forum. He believes
school administrators are in the right
mindset to confront bigotry; he was
asked to be available for consultations.
“It is important to remain indivis-
ible as we confront growing bigotry,”
Gutmann said. “[BHHS] brings
together a diverse population from
a large geographic area. This further
necessitates the engineering of inter-
actions between students of different
ethnic, religious and economic back-
grounds. I’m pleased the school has
followed the model of restorative prac-
tice in seeking to educate rather than
punish offenders.”
Normandin gave Hollerith a “big
thumbs up” for the way he is handling
the situation by contacting the ADL for
intervention even weeks before the lat-
est incident was publicly reported.
Normandin said there has been
an uptick in reports coming into her
office from schools around the state.
“Hollerith took the right proactive
approach,” Normandin said. “The
ADL will be working with Bloomfield
Hills High School staff, students and
even parents and will be involved in
helping the school incorporate and
activate restorative practices to help
turn this around. In cases like this, it’s
not important to know every detail
of the offending incident, but what is
important is how schools react after-
wards. Our education team is on it. I
wish every principal in the state was as
proactive as Mr. Hollerith.” ■