CALGARY COMMUNITY CONFERENCING

School Component 1999-2000: A Year in Review

  Prepared by:   Avery Calhoun, Ph.D.

                                    September, 2000

Introduction

Calgary Community Conferencing began in early 1998 as an initiative of the City of Calgary, Youth Probation Services. The Calgary Board of Education became a partner in June 1999, with funding for a .5 F.T.E position. Additional financial partners include the Calgary John Howard Society and the Mennonite Central Committee. Non-financial partners include Calgary Police Services and Calgary Family Services. Currently, referrals to Community Conferencing come from two primary sources: the youth justice system and the Calgary Board of Education. Therefore, Conferences can be broadly categorized as either Court or School. The following report[1] provides a description of School Conferences and their various participants. Some demographic information on the young people[2] is also included. This report concentrates on School Conferences, although comparisons with Court Conferences are made where informative.

[1]  The data used for this report and the report itself are the property of Calgary Community Conferencing.

[2]  The phrase ‘young people’ is used to describe the youths responsible for the harmful incident.

1.      

          School and Court Conferences

Between January 1998 and the end of May 2000, Calgary Community Conferencing completed 65 Community Conferences. As portrayed in Table 1, just under one-third (19 or 29.2%) were School and just over two-thirds (46 or 70.8%) were Court Conferences.

Type	Number	Percent	Date of First Conference
School	19	29.2	May 25/99
Court	46	70.8	Jan. 10/98
Total	65	100

[1] Percent totals may not add exactly to 100 throughout the report,. This is due to rounding error

The first School Conference occurred during May 1999, which was prior to the official partnership between Calgary Community Conferencing and the Calgary Board of Education (C.B.E). This first Conference was a pilot for the C.B.E. and involved an assault between junior high students. The first Conference held during the year of C.B.E. funding was on November 3, 1999, and involved physical fighting between students from a different junior high school. There were two additional Conferences in November and one in December, for a total of five School Conferences during 1999. In 2000, four School Conferences were held in January, two in February, one in March, four in April and three in May.

 Considering only the time period since the first School Conference (i.e., between May 25, 1999 and May 31, 2000), 47 Community Conferences were completed. Over this period, School Conferences (19) accounted for 40.4% while Court Conferences (28) accounted for 59.6% of  the total completed.

2.  Schools Participating in Community Conferences

As indicated in Table 2, students from a total of 14 schools participated in Conferences over the reporting period. Close to three-quarters (10 or 71.4%) of these schools were junior high, while 14.3% (2) were elementary and 14.3% (2) were high schools. Of the 19 School Conferences that occurred across the 14 schools, approximately one-tenth (2 or 10.5%) involved elementary, three-quarters (14 or 73.7%) junior high, and one-tenth (3 or 10.5%) high school students. No participating school was involved in more than 3 Conferences.

Table 2.  Conferences by School

School	Number	Percent
Elementary School A	1	5.3
Elementary School B	1	5.3
Junior High School A	1	5.3
Junior High School B	1	5.3
Junior High School C	1	5.3
Junior High School D	2	10.5
Junior High School E	3	15.8
Junior High School F	2	10.5
Junior High School G	1	5.3
Junior High School H	1	5.3
Junior High School I	1	5.3
Junior High School J	1	5.3
High School A	2	10.5
High School B	1	5.3
Total	19	100

[1] Percent totals may not add exactly to 100 throughout the report,. This is due to rounding error

3.  Types of Incidents Conferenced

Table 3a portrays the various incidents about which the 19 School Conferences were held between May 1999 and May 2000. As can be noted, assaults accounted for the highest proportion of incidents, both in terms of number of Conferences (8 or 42.1%) and number of young people (19 or 35.8%). A total number of 53 young people were involved in Conferenced incidents. 

Table 3a.  Conferences and Participants by Incident

Incidents over which School Conferences were held can be sorted into three broad categories: assault related, interpersonal conflict, and property related.  Assault-related incidents accounted for just over half of the total Conferences and involved a little over one third (21) of the young people. Conferences regarding interpersonal conflict in schools, which involved over half (30) of the total young people involved in Conferences, accounted for less than half (45%) of the total Conferences. Finally, only one property related incident, tire slashing, was Conferenced, which involved 2 young people.

Table 3b is presented to enable a comparison between the types of incidents over which School and Court Conferences were held. Court Conferences were categorized into three types: property related (break and enter, theft over and under $5,000, robbery, auto theft, etc.), assault (or interpersonal conflict) related (assault, assault with a weapon, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, etc.), and other (mischief, trespassing, etc.). Note that, on occasion, a Conference is over more than one type of incident. Also note that the table presents types of incidents Conferenced and does not reflect the number of counts on any incident.

Table 3b.  Court Conferences by Incident Category

Both School and Court Conferences have been held regarding serious assault incidents. The most apparent difference between School and Court Conferences involves property related incidents: while these predominate among Court Conferences, there has only been one School Conference held over property related incident.

4.  Referral Sources for School Conferences

As indicated by Table 4, incidents were referred for School Conferences from a variety of sources. School administrators (principals and assistant principals) were responsible for over two-thirds (13 or 68.4%) of the referrals. School counsellors and suspension desk personnel accounted for most of the balance of the referrals, with the one ‘other’ referral coming from a Calgary Police Youth Education Intervention officer.

Table 4.  School Conference Referral Sources

Referral Source	Number	Percent
Suspension Desk	2	10.5
Assistant Principal	6	31.6
Principal	7	36.8
School counsellor	3	15.8
Other	1	5.3
Total	19	100

5.  Time Between Incident, Referral, and School Conference

Tables 5a, 5b, and 5c display, respectively, the number of days between incident and referral, referral and Conference, and incident and Conference. Also included with each table are the average number of intervening days in each category for both School and Court Conferences.

Table 5a.  Days Between Incident and Referral

As indicated by Table 5a, almost all (89.5) school referrals to Community Conferencing occurred within 30 days of the incident and referrals occurred, on average, 16 days after the incident. Without the two incidents referred after more than 30 days (one was referred 34 days and the other was referred 50 days after the incident), the average time between incident and referral was 13 days.  Time elapsed between incident and referral was much longer for Court (146) than for School (16 days) Conferences.

Table 5b. Days Between Referral and School Conference

As indicated in Table 5b, about one-fifth (8 or 42.1%) of School Conferences occurred before 3 weeks had passed since the referral was received. On average, School Conferences occurred just over three-and-a-half weeks post referral. Compared with Court Conferences, School Conferences occurred more quickly after referral receipt, as the former were Conferenced, on average, nine weeks post referral.

Table 5c.   Days Between Incident and School Conference

With respect to time elapsed between incident and Conference, more than one-half (11 or 57.8%) of all School Conferences during the reporting period were held within 6 weeks of the incident. As indicated in Table 5c, the average number of days between school referred incidents and Conferences was 39. However, this includes the one Conference  referred more than 60 days post incident. Minus this Conference, the average days between incident and Conference was 36. Compared with Court Conferences, time between incident and referral for School Conferences was substantially shorter; weeks between incident and referral for School Conferences averaged about 6 and, for Court Conferences, about 30.

6. School Conference Participants

As indicated in Table 6a, 216 Conference participants were directly involved in School Conferences over the reporting period. When observers (i.e., those who attended the Conference but sat outside of the circle) are included, the number of participating individuals involved increases to 259.

Table 6a.  Number of Participants in School Conferences

On average, 11 individuals participated in each School Conference. One of the School Conferences was considerably larger than all others, with 30 directly affected individuals. This Conference was with respect to group related conflict and involved 12 young people. Most (16 of 19 Conferences or 84.2%) Conferences averaged between 5 and 14 directly involved participants.

 To date, more participants have been directly involved in Court (379) than in School Conferences (216).  However, the average number of participants in each School Conference was greater than in each Court Conference, with the latter averaging about 8 individuals.

Table 6b. Types of Participants in School Conferences

As indicated in Table 6b, young people accepting responsibility for the Conferenced incidents accounted for one-fifth of all School Conference participants. Victims numbered about half the number of young people. Supporters of victims and young people numbered 106, representing almost half (49.1%) of all directly involved non-staff School Conference participants.

As can be noted in Table 6b,  a victim was not identified in each Conference. Four School Conferences were held in which the young-person/victim distinction was not appropriate. Two of these incidents involved physical fighting, the third involved verbal fighting and the fourth was the group related conflict mentioned previously.

Table 6c portrays the roles of the ‘others’ involved in School Conferences. While the role of three directly involved Conference participants was not specified, 29 could be sorted into 10 categories. Among these 29 indirect participants, school Principals or Assistant Principals were the most frequently attending ‘others’ in Conferences, accounting for almost half (44.8%) of the total. School-related personnel (guidance counsellors, administrators, C.B.E. specialist, and teachers) accounted for one-quarter (7 or 24.1%) of ‘other’ participants in School Conferences. Justice system personnel (probation officer, police officers and an alternative measures representative) accounted for 13.8% (4) of ‘other’ participants.