Written and Edited - April 25th, 2017 - 3:52 pm to 4:57 pm
Edited - April 26th, 2017 - 12:53 pm to 1:06 pm
Edited - June 16th, 2017 - 12:55 pm to 1:05 pm
Cruel and Inhumane Punishment
I have a vague memory when I was about four years old in preschool at nap time. I guess we had nap time on a regular basis when we had to get out on the mats and take naps.
I have a vague memory of Tommy talking during nap time. And I think that the teacher asked Tommy to be quiet. My memory says Tommy talked this one time. But looking back, he might have talked during more than 1 nap time.
I think there was a back-and-forth, between the teacher and Tommy during this nap time, and maybe others.
The teacher kept asking Tommy or telling him to be quiet. After our teacher told Tommy to be quiet 1 or more times and he didn't comply, the teacher threw a book at him and gave him a bloody nose.
At one point, I think the end of the day, and that it was shortly after that experience, I was sitting at the daycare waiting for my ride, maybe my parents, to pick me up from school.
I heard 2 adults talking about my teacher being fired. The way that I remembered it for a long time was that I overheard the principal or an administrator fire my teacher directly, telling her that you're fired.
Later, my memory told me that I overheard 2 staff members talking about my teacher being fired.
But when I heard the adults talking about my teacher being fired, I thought to myself, she should be punished for what she did, but being fired felt too severe to me.
Because I pictured my teacher being thrown in a fireplace. I thought that's what being fired meant. I didn't know that fired meant losing her job.
I don't remember talking to my parents or anyone else about that experience. And while I was somewhat freaked out for a while I don't remember the details about when or how I was able to reduce my anxiety about that situation.
Looking back, my new teacher might have introduced herself by telling the class that she was replacing my other teacher. She might have explained that my other teacher was fired because she threw a book at a student and gave him a bloody nose. But I don't remember.
I was introduced to a restorative justice model about 33 years after that incident. And I feel a need to relate to that experience in a restorative justice way. I've thought about that experience many times over the years. I know that it's impacted me and I think that it's effected others, not just individually, but in the context of a collective community. And I feel like I can benefit from some learning and healing and I think others might too. Because, there were some people effected directly like Tommy, our teacher, me and my classmates, school mates, administrators, other school staff, family members and maybe others.
So, when we can address the current or present situation wholistically, in the context of the collective, then we're not only closer to reclaiming our wholeness and humanity individually, but we can reclaim our wholeness as a community. And we can be more aware of different aspects or dynamics moving forward so that the harm is decreased and eventually prevented. That our way of being with each other and ourselves is in our natural state of humanity.