Well, I say it's sort of like a court. Ummm,.how do I describe it?
I basically say that if you do something wrong you get written up and that gets taken to j.c. which is a panel that is made of people that are students and staff. Fairhaven Meeting Members.
The school would not work without j.c. The school would just be in so much trouble.
...then decide your fate by democratic action.
j.c. is called Judicial Committee.
Sometimes it can be funny. Sometimes it can be really intense. Sometimes it's just a quick case.
Sometimes a few people have asked me if it descends into chaos which it doesn't. It's pretty well ordered.
It's a little more amorphous than your average school but I like that.
Things don't get that cold and calculating at Fairhaven.
Your friends or at least your acquaintances that you're trying. You obviously don't let that get in the way of your decisions.
But it still just keeps you from turning it into some kind of bureaucratic machine.
Okay, threatening that if he wrote it up, I did not even threaten him. I did not say -YES YOU DID.
ORDER PLEASE. I did not choke him. He fell on the ground. He was so angry, maybe that was why he thought his eyeballs were going to pop out of his head. I did not throw him on the ground and I did not punch him.
He tripped over a stick while he was running. And while he was on the ground I asked him why he was trying to pay Martin to beat me up. He wouldn't tell me. And then he smashed my hand...
...with the stick he is twisting the one around on.
Why was he running from you? Why was he running from me?
BECAUSE YOU WERE CHASING ME!
I was trying to ask him why he was paying Martin to beat me up and he was like running from me so I went to find out.
And he like tripped over a stick on the way and like fell on his face.
Matthew? It seems to me that it's appropriate to ask for your testimony now.
Did he choke you?
Well, he pulled up my shirt like this...
So he tugged on your shirt...
When I tried to help him up I didn't know I was grabbing his shirt. I was trying to grab his shoulder and it must have been choking him when I was trying to help him up.
Max?
Was anyone else around you guys when this was happening?
I don't think he saw anything because he was on the ground crying.
Matt, is that what happened when he came up to you?
Without the bashing his leg.
So, when he ran off, you followed him, right?
Oh no, I didn't want to get hit again. I just walked off and sat down on the see saw with Martin.
When I was down on the ground, he picked my up by the collar. He let go. My head fell and hit the ground but I didn't know that he was going to let go.
That's why my head fell on the ground.
What has not been answered is Max's question and that is what has gotten Matthew so upset to want to beat Grant up in the first place.
And I think we need to get to the bottom of this be cause maybe something else happened prior to him wanting to beat him up.
I walked up to Dunkin and I was talking to Random and then I talked to Dunkin and I was like, hey Dunkin, you want to go down to the computer room?
And Matthew I think got all mad because like I was going to go play with Dunkin.
BUT...
MATTHEW, you have to wait until we call on you, okay? That's just how j.c. works.
Would you like to hear the report so far? Please.
Matt offered Martin twenty dollars to beat up Grant. Martin told Grant what Matt did. Grant confronted Matt.
Matt hit Grant with a stick and ran off. Grant chased him.
Matt tripped on a branch and fell on his knees. Grant pulled him up by the collar. He dropped him and hit his head on the ground.
Matt got up and was angry. He swung a stick and hit Grant on the hand. The n Matt stole Grant's stick.
Grant walked back to Martin afterwards.
Is there any further discussion on Matt being charged with harassment?
Seeing none, all in favor?
That one was unanimous.
On to Grant.
Is there any further discussion on charging Grant with dangerous activity?
All in favor? Opposed? Abstaining?
That does not pass.
Matt, you are charged with dangerous activity and harassment? How do you plead?
Uh, guilty.
And how do you plead to harassment?
Guilty.
Thank you Grant.
Any sentence ideas from either of you? Matt I recall you had one.
Let's see. Once, I had this sentence where when I was in a room Carson couldn't come into the room. Remember that one?
I was wondering if maybe every time Grant's in a room, I can't walk in.
I don't feel that a restraining order thing is practical here. I think that this shows that they really need to learn to get along. Avoiding each other won't help with that.
I was thinking that maybe we could agree to mediation?
I was think that...Matt, how do you feel about mediation?
Uh...what the heck is that?
Mediation is where you sit down in a room with the person you've been having trouble with and another person or two that are trained as mediators ...
You sit down and talk and try and come to a decision that would be best for everyone and leave you guys getting along.
Any more discussion on both of them being referred to school meeting and suggested mediation by that school meeting?
Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Abstaining?
You guys are referred to school meeting and it's recommended that you get mediation before then.
So you guys can come sign and Grant, you can't go yet.
Are you guys fine with this being on film?
Yeah.
My first week. My first visiting week. No, it was the first week that I was enrolled, that I got written up. It was like the first day, it was a Monday.
And I was like, what the...! I though only super-bad kids got written up. I came into j.c. and I was like, jeese god, I can't believe I'm here. This is like the worst thing that has ever happened to me.
I go in and, like, I didn't wash my bowl out.
And my friend Jarred was there
And I gave my defense and I was like I'm really new here and I didn't know you had to wash the dishes.
And this staff member, Robert, was like, well, what do you think, that like the dish fairy was going to come and clean it up?
I left my lunchbox out when I was five, six. I'd leave my lunchbox out.
It was always kind of hard for me to remember to put away my lunchbox.
You get to explain in your way. And if they believe you. Which they probably would if it sounds like it makes sense.
Because some people will come in saying 'I didn't spill the popcorn on the floor. My Lego woman did.'
And then they'll go and get their Lego woman and the person who does the j.c. will say, 'Lego woman, do you want to explain this?'
And then the person who had the Lego woman will say, 'No, she doesn't feel like talking right now.'
I was not on j.c., simply sitting and observing.
..and I saw that he was getting upset and ..
And I was sort of torn. Half of me saying, 'oh, I wish he wasn't upset.'
And the other half of me was saying, 'Well he did deserve it. He did nasty things and now he's getting in trouble.'
And then, he started crying. And although I still felt he was probably deserving the punishment that he got ...
I had a huge amount of sympathy for him.
J.c., people think of it as a place to deal out punishments...
In a way I confess lording over people's lives is a little bit, sort of fun but...
I try to be fair about it and I sit in on j.c. I sub whenever I possibly can.
And if I can't, I just sit in and watch.
I definitely feel a lot of compassion for both sides really.
One of them, I'm sorry this thing happened to you which the other person was at fault for.
And then again for the defendant. Even though you did something that wasn't good and was against the rules,
I'm still sorry you have to get in trouble for it.
That doesn't outweigh the fact that you are going to get in trouble for it and I think you probably deserve it.
But you can feel compassion without necessarily feeling the urge to immediately act upon it
Not all the world is fair but this place is as fair as it's probably going to get...
...in a school...