Timote Vaka was running out of second chances.
When he struck a member of a rival basketball team in October after he misinterpreted his opponent鈥檚 light shoulder bump for something more aggressive, he faced losing his spot on the team and being kicked out of Ralph J. Bunche High, an alternative school in Oakland, Calif.
Vaka, 18, was sent to Bunche High after an incident at his previous high school, also in Oakland. He鈥檇 been mistakenly accused of cutting class and was taken to an assistant principal鈥檚 office. 鈥淗e was trying to call my Pops,鈥� Vaka says. To stop the call, he ended up hitting the assistant principal.
That got him a ticket to Bunche, a school of last resort for students with discipline issues.
So when Vaka鈥檚 aggression emerged again at the basketball game and he faced losing a chance at being in school altogether, Bunche鈥檚 鈥渞estorative justice鈥� teacher, Eric Butler, stepped in. At Bunche High, he had watched as Vaka pushed his grade point average to a 3.5 from less than 1.0 and put himself on a path to graduate this school year, maybe even with classmates at his previous school.
鈥淗e could have easily been suspended,鈥� Butler says, but as for the opposing team, 鈥渘one of the boys [wanted] him to be suspended.鈥� And the one who was hit? 鈥淗e needed an apology. He needed to know why.鈥�
One More Chance
So Butler persuaded school administrators to give Vaka just one more chance.
Now, Butler is personally shepherding Vaka鈥檚 pledge to improve his behavior using restorative practices, an approach that holds students accountable and gets them to right a wrong.
Butler set up a meeting between the Bunche team and the Island High School in Alameda, Calif., that Vaka鈥檚 team played the night he lost his temper.
鈥淲e all got into a circle. We mixed up the players [from each team]. We went around talking about what we could have done instead of fighting,鈥� Vaka says. He apologized to his teammates, the student he hit, and all of that student鈥檚 teammates. They watched a video of the shoulder bump that set Vaka off, and he realized his mistake.
鈥淚 took it the wrong way. I could have walked away,鈥� Vaka says.
Then Butler required Vaka to take anger-management classes. The plan to repair harm Vaka has done included an in-person meeting with his parents. They discussed what happened at the basketball game, along with Vaka鈥檚 departures from campus to smoke, and what Vaka is doing to make that right and keep his place at Bunche.
鈥淎 lot of people think restorative is a quick fix. Sometimes it is,鈥� Butler says. 鈥淢ore often, it鈥檚 not.鈥�
Vaka says that had he been expelled from Bunche, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be in school at all.鈥�
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Nor would he be addressing underlying anger and impulse issues, Butler says. Using a restorative-justice approach 鈥渓eft us with an opportunity to connect him with resources he otherwise would not have been connected to. We are being very intentional about the conversation,鈥� he says.
And the anger-management classes and meeting with the opposing team already are having an effect, Vaka says.
鈥淏efore this happened, I wouldn鈥檛 think about my decision. When the incident happened, I wasn鈥檛 thinking before I hit the guy, the player,鈥� but now, he says, it鈥檚 far more likely he would take a moment to assess the situation before acting.
