Lori Smith, a licensed social worker for the Clark County School District Police Department, poses for a portrait at Green Valley High School Tuesday March 8, 2022.
Monday, March 21, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Lori Smith is the first of at least three social workers the Clark County School District Police Department is adding to their ranks.
The relationship may be unique, as Smith believes she is the first social worker to be attached directly to a school district police force anywhere in the country.
Social workers like Smith are civilian counselors and facilitators who complement the social workers who are based on most campuses, stepping in with support when police are called but an arrest might not be needed.
Smith, who was previously a campus-based social worker at Desert Oasis High School, shifted to the police department last summer. Her role is to stabilize crises, then refer students to her school-based colleagues for monitoring. She travels all of the district.
Smith’s work falls within the broad “restorative justice” philosophy, which has students accused of lower-level infractions making amends or seeking counseling.
New CCSD Police Chief Henry Blackeye is a proponent of restorative justice, also known as the School Justice Partnership, and has prioritized diversion over punitive measures for less serious offenses. Ultimately, Smith wants her interactions with students to prevent future, potentially worse breakdowns.
We spoke with Smith about social work and alternative discipline. Here are highlights of our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
What are your goals for the police social work team?
To reduce the recidivism rate. (For) students that keep having interaction with police services, what can we do differently? Some of the kids can’t verbalize (their needs). They can only verbalize anger and (show) physical aggression.
We’re going to start out with three social workers, one in each region. But it’s my hope that we can have two in each region.
What is your role in restorative justice? What do people not understand about restorative justice?
When I left Desert Oasis, I was a restorative justice practices facilitator. We were going into the schools to teach restorative practices. What we found out is that some people would like to use restorative justice practices for the back-end. Restorative practice is a universal technique or procedure. It’s a whole-school process. You’re building relationships with students, you’re building relationships with staff.
If a student causes a harm, and the administrators say, ‘OK, you need to make this right. How are you going to make this right for everybody in the community?’ That student, if they’re connected to that community, they can come up with an idea and say, ‘Hey, I could do this to restore the relationship.’
At one of the high schools, we had this kid who was putting graffiti all over campus. The administration finally caught the student. They had the student repaint the walls, then they referred the student to student council to help do the banners for homecoming and graduation and different activities. So that student (was) giving back and feeling like they’re a part of the campus and a part of the community.
How can social workers respond to the current wave of school violence?
Data. Look at your school’s behaviors, the types of behaviors. Who are the students that are causing the disruptions in the school? And talking to those parents and bringing those students into social-emotional (discussion) groups.
In the heat of the moment, think about consequences. Think about your locus of control — is this person controlling you? If we can teach the kids those skills, that may reduce some of the behavior events.
When you look at your data, you pull those students into the social-emotional groups, you check their attendance, their grades, let them know expectations.
When I was at the high school, that’s exactly what we did. And we noticed a decline in the (bad) behavior.
