Cory Booker endorsed an elementary school program that sends children that cause disruptions to yoga classes instead of detention.
Fort Worthington Elementary School in Baltimore hired an instructor to teach children meditation and yoga. Instead of punishing children that cause problems with detention, teachers send the children to yoga class, according to a viral video posted by NowThis on Monday.
“This is amazing. When we talk about ending the school-to-prison pipeline, this is exactly the kind of thoughtful, innovative and commonsense practice to we need to adopt,” Booker, a Democratic candidate for president, tweeted Tuesday.
This is amazing. When we talk about ending the school-to-prison pipeline, this is exactly the kind of thoughtful, innovative and commonsense practice to we need to adopt. https://t.co/ilVp4BTfT9
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) June 11, 2019
“I knew that I had to provide my students with something different, right? A means of healing, a means of transforming their lives, a means of communicating through conflict, and even just proactively communicating with others,” Fort Worthington Principal Monique Debi says in the video.
The highlighted program is similar to one adopted by another Baltimore school, Robert W. Coleman Elementary, in 2013. Coleman elementary started a “Mindful Moment Room” where teachers send children after they have an argument or fight with each other.
Many of the children that attend Coleman are from broken families with one or more parents in prison, if their parents are around at all. Some children are homeless or are not fed regularly. The meditation program has made a significant impact on disciplinary issues at the school.
“It’s made a huge impact,” Coleman Principal Carlillian Thompson said in 2016, adding that not a single student had been suspended from the school since the program began. Four students were suspended from Coleman in 2012.
