Morningside Center Supports Community Building at WESS

According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, one out of every 5 students has reported being bullied. Even more concerning is that 100% of students who responded to a 2022 report by the Department of Education reported knowing about bullying that was taking place in their school. 

Although bullying has reportedly declined in schools over the past decade, it still remains a prevalent issue. A big reason for that is the lasting impacts that bullying can have, affecting not just those being bullied, but the bully themselves and anyone who witnesses the incident. While strict disciplinary action has been used in the past, corporal punishment and similar methods for addressing bullying has largely been phased out of schools across the US.  Sansriti, the restorative justice coordinator at WESS, describes how oftentimes bullying occurs because an individual doesn’t “feel a sense of belonging there.”

In its place enters a new form of corrective action, one that prioritizes discussion and mentoring over the reactive nature of traditional discipline. Restorative justice is at the heart of this practice, promoting conversations with the affected individuals in an approach that seeks to expand beyond simply explaining that an action is wrong and more so, why it’s wrong. 

One of the organizations leading these conversations is Morningside Center, which aims to bring these difficult conversations about bullying, race, and equality directly to schools. Morningside Center was founded in 1982 by public educators and has sought to prioritize public schools in their work. 

As opposed to traditional methods of discipline, one of Morningside Center’s key goals is to host difficult conversations with different school stakeholders before an incident has occurred. Believing in the importance of forming connections within school communities, Lauren Neidhardt, a restorative justice educator at Morningside, describes the work they do as “Building a container for courageous conversations to be had.” Oftentimes, this involves hosting discussions with groups such as the School Leadership Team, the Parent Association, and student affinity groups. But educators from Morningside also serve as “though partners” according to Sansriti, helping to “push my thinking around certain things.”

Lauren describes how a large portion of the process Morningside undertakes is with the goal of engaging young people by making them “invested in the work and continuing to build out their restorative justice practices.” Morningside Center’s website banner head describes this philosophy with the saying “Change Begins in Schools.” Holding these discussions, that center around race and equality, can often be difficult, but Neidhardt describes how they’re important for “creating community norms and … stronger relationships between people.”

Morningside has expertise both before and after an incident has occurred, but their curriculum is especially designed to train teachers and students in preventative techniques. This is often easiest when there is buy-in from school administrators, Neidhardt describes. The top-down approach this allows for means that staff and students receive full support when learning how to engage in restorative practices themselves. 

Morningside is unique because of their emphasis on engaging student leaders—often those running affinity groups. Yet this approach has proved valuable, especially at WESS. Working with students to plan school-wide town halls has led to them being “better put together” and more centered around “what community building should look like,” in the words of senior Sophia Randle. The preventative approach that Morningside takes is also appreciated, as “if you’re a strong community, there’s going to be … no issues,” continues Randle, describing incidents of hate. 

Jonah Guthartz, the president of the Jewish Student Union and a senior at WESS, agrees. “They gave us a lot of the resources to plan the town hall,” a community-oriented day consisting of intra-grade bonding activities. Even as a leader of one of WESS’s largest affinity groups, he praised the impact Morningside had left, describing how he would likely use their resources when transitioning the club over to its next leaders. 

Morningside remains unique because one of its primary goals is to leave the schools it partners with. After purchasing a package of teaching sessions through the city’s Department of Education, schools have several staff members and students undergo restorative justice training so that they can continue Morningside’s work even after they’ve left the school. Sansriti emphasizes that “a lot of that work [that Morningside has done] will continue … with or without Morningside.”

This approach to countering bullying and hate is relatively new, but its emphasis on engaging students and staff through probing conversations signals a deeper level of involvement. It encourages deeper levels of reflection from perpetrators in a method that aims to resemble a series of stitches rather than a loose band-aid.