Our discipline policy is guided by the belief that missteps and mistakes are frequently a part of personal growth, and the school implements a system of graduated incentives and responses in order to move students toward more acceptable behavior and increased accountability and maturity.
The school understands that each of our students has individual circumstances and needs, and we are eager and equipped to support students at every step of their academic career and experience at Washington Latin.
Discipline is an individualized process.
While there are certain infractions that, once properly investigated, result in immediate, consistent responses, we also take an individualized and situation-specific approach to all disciplinary actions. Our approach focuses on helping students develop a compassionate understanding of how their words and actions affect others, both immediately and directly and over the longer term, and through the extended community. To achieve this, our disciplinary actions are tailored to each student, taking into consideration his/her background, history, and current pertinent circumstances. We remain committed to reducing the minutes that students may be removed from class or school and to mitigate any loss by providing them with access to their teachers during all in-school suspensions. We also assign tutors to work with students during out-of-school suspensions beyond two school days.
Usually, the school staff carries out such actions in an informal way using dialogue and mediation strategies. More serious and chronic behaviors, however, may require corrective and disciplinary measures in the form of issuing demerits, conducting conferences, hosting detention, and occasionally, suspending or expelling students. In certain and more extreme circumstances, the school may also require the student and family to enter into a specific behavior agreement that will determine the student’s ability to remain enrolled in school. In situations where behavior is not improving, the school’s foremost objective is to craft a solution that minimizes the loss of academic time and maximizes the opportunity to provide the student with the necessary support to manage challenges in their personal lives. To this end, the school is committed to making individualized disciplinary decisions that serve the best interests of the student and the community.
Trauma-Informed Classroom
Consistent with our commitment to understanding the individual, Washington Latin trains all faculty in the tenets of the trauma-informed classroom. Our goal is that all members of the faculty will be trained in this approach by the end of the school year and that it will be an essential component of our approach to discipline through which student behavior and needs are understood. While the school will continue to utilize conventional responses to disciplinary infractions, such as in-school or out-of-school suspension or detention, we are committed to not making this our sole approach. In training faculty, we emphasize the need for consistency balanced with consideration, particularly for students who have experienced trauma. We will identify issues that affect students’ behavior and craft a response that builds positive relationships with peers and caring adults in order to support their emotional and academic growth while also taking into account our concomitant responsibility to our entire community.
Restorative Justice and Peer Mediation
Behavioral expectations and consequences also reflect our overarching objective of helping our students become thoughtful people who will contribute to the public good and continue a lifelong quest towards a fuller humanity. We strive to incorporate the restorative approach in every disciplinary action to address students’ actions and also repair relationships. This includes a robust and growing peer mediation program. Peer Mediation now exists as a credited (elective) course in our Upper School. Students are encouraged to use this program for conflicts with both students and teachers. To the extent possible, we rely on student leaders who have received this important training to facilitate Peer Mediation.
