Examples of Restorative vs. Punitive Approaches

➤ If you would like to see examples of how to interact with students and make referrals in accordance with restorative justice, see the conversations below. These scenario-based examples were written by a student conduct professional to illustrate trauma-informed, restorative responses in real-life contexts.

Purpose: These scripted role plays are designed to help faculty and staff understand how to navigate situations where mental health, student behaviour, and conduct intersect.

SCENARIO 1: Bullying and Suicidality Claims

Summary: A student has been reported for bullying a classmate via online harassment. When confronted about the behaviour, the student becomes highly emotional and states, “If you report me, I might as well kill myself.” The staff member is unsure whether this is a genuine mental health crisis or a manipulative tactic to avoid accountability.

Student: “If you report me, I might as well kill myself.”

Staff: “That sounds really heavy, can you tell me what’s making you feel this way?”

Student: “I just can’t have the university finding out about this. If I have a Student Conduct violation on my record, I will never get into law school. I don’t have a back-up plan.”

Staff: “Alright, I hear that you’re worried about how this could affect your future. It is part of my responsibilities to report situations like this to the Student Conduct Office. But I think it might help if we reach out to our CARE team. They can explain the impact of a conduct process, connect you with a counsellor, and help process academic consideration requests. Can we reach out to them together?”

If the student refuses support or does not want to engage: contact the Student Conduct Office or the CARE Team if there is any indication of risk to life, as this becomes a safety concern. You are permitted to consult with these teams, respecting confidentiality guidelines.

SCENARIO 2: Substance Use

Summary: An academic advisor meets with a student who appears visibly agitated and smells strongly of alcohol on their breath during a scheduled appointment. The student becomes verbally aggressive, swearing at the advisor when asked if everything is okay. When the advisor expresses concern, the student breaks down expressing fear that their parents will find out about their drinking or that they will be kicked out of the institution. The student expresses anxiety and says they can’t handle this on top of school stress.

Advisor: “Before we move on, I’m getting the feeling that there may be something else going with you and I’m concerned you might have been drinking before this meeting. Are you okay?”

Student: “Oh F*** off! Can you just do your job and get this s*** over with?”

Advisor: “I can’t continue this appointment if you aren’t in the right headspace to make decisions or if you’re swearing at me, but I do care about how you’re doing. I want to make sure you’re safe and supported.”

This moment is an example of how staff can maintain clear boundaries while still expressing care. Refer to the CICMH Boundaries Infosheet for more information.

Student: “Don’t tell anyone! If you tell people and my parents find out, I’ll be kicked out. I just had a drink to calm down, I was nervous.”

Advisor: “I hear you, it sounds like you’re under a lot of pressure. I want you to know that what you share with me is kept confidential unless there’s a serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk to your safety or someone else’s. I want to make sure you’re connected with people who can best support you. I can help with academic planning, but right now it seems like there are other things you might need help with first. Does that sound fair? I think connecting you with our CARE team would be a good next step, they can support you while we also work on your academics.”

Student: “I don’t know if that will help… but okay.”

Advisor: “I’ll send an email to the CARE team and you so they can reach out. Let’s plan to meet next week to continue this conversation and make sure you’re on track academically.”

Student: “Thanks. I’m sorry for getting mad.”

Advisor: “I appreciate that. It’s hard to be sworn at and I hope you’re in a better place when we meet again.”

SCENARIO 3: Accommodation Dispute Framed as Discrimination

Summary: A student with a documented disability is upset because a professor did not grant them an extension. The student tells a staff member they feel the institution is discriminating against them.

Student: “This place sucks. How is it legal that the professor denied my extension request when it is in my Letter of Accommodation? I can’t believe I am being discriminated against.”

Staff: “That’s tough that you didn’t get your accommodation! It must feel so unfair, maybe even discriminatory.”

Student: “I just don’t know where to start even if I wanted to complain! I sent an email to my Accessibility Advisor, but I don’t know where to go from there. And then there’s the fact that I failed the assignment.”

Staff: “There is this office on campus that may be able to discuss your options and help connect you with all the campus partners necessary to look into this matter. Would you feel comfortable if we called them together?”

SCENARIO 4: Faculty Concern About Student’s Behaviour

Summary: A faculty member contacts the student conduct office about a student in their class who “mumbles to themselves, seems agitated, and never makes eye contact.” The faculty member feels uncomfortable and believes the student might be dangerous.

Faculty: “I have some concerns about a student in my class. I’m starting to worry that this student may pose a risk to the other students and myself.”

Student Conduct Office: “Tell me more about what you are seeing in class.”

Faculty: “The student is often mumbling to themselves and seems restless and agitated in their movements. The student never makes eye contact with me even when participating in discussion or asking a question.”

Student Conduct Office: “How is their participation in class and in assignments? Are they using offensive language? Yelling at other students or yourself? Any concerns with the content of their assignments?”

Faculty: “When they participate, it is relevant to the topic. It’s not so much yelling, profanity, or threats. I can see that the other students are uncomfortable and nervous. I’m nervous. You never know what might happen and I don’t want to ignore what I am seeing.”

Student Conduct Office: “Thank you for bringing me your concerns. While the behaviour you described doesn’t violate the Code of Conduct, I don’t want to ignore your intuition that this student may need some more support. Let’s make a referral to our CARE team.”

SCENARIO 5: Classroom Disruption

Summary: A student regularly interrupts class with loud and angry comments. They challenge professors, speak over peers, and have caused several classmates to complain. When spoken to, the student claims they are just passionate. There’s concern this behaviour may be linked to a mental health issue.

Professor: “I’d like to discuss what happened in class today. You were loud and interrupted several of your classmates during discussion.”

Student: “I really care about this topic. It’s not my fault that everyone else is too stupid to understand how important it is.”

Professor: “I’m happy to hear that you are passionate about the topic. It’s my job to make sure that everyone has a chance to participate in discussions to support their learning. It can be hard for someone to feel comfortable in discussion when they feel like they are going to be interrupted or called stupid.”

Student: “They need to get over it. It’s not my problem if they are too scared.”

Professor: “In my class, I expect everyone, including you, to listen when others are talking, to avoid interrupting, and avoid insults in discussions. Next class, I am going to reset these expectations for the whole class. If these expectations are violated, I will be reporting it to the Student Conduct Office.”

Student: “I will try but sometimes I don’t realize I am doing it until it is too late. I’m just really passionate and people have always made me feel like a problem for it.”

Professor: “It sounds like you have gotten similar feedback before. Have you ever worked with someone to make a plan around these situations?”

Student: “No. Is there someone that would talk to me about this? I don’t think I need counselling.”

Professor: “There is an office on campus that would be willing to plan out some strategies for these scenarios. If you are interested, I will email them with my discussion expectations and ask them to reach out to you to strategize around these expectations.”

➤ For more guidance, see CICMH’s “How to Support Students Who Are Behaving Disruptively in Class” infosheet in the Mental Health Crisis Response on Campus Toolkit.

Click here to access printable reflection prompts related to these scenarios, with space to write your responses and reflect on how to respond with care and compassion in similar situations.

Campus Spotlights

• Dalhousie University updated their Code of Conduct in 2021 to include three intervention streams to manage reports of non-academic misconduct, based on impact and risk to the community. These include: a case management approach (no formal policy violation applied), a non-investigative formal code process, and a formal investigative code process, with each stream reflecting increasing levels of safety risk and impact.
• University of Alberta Residence Services takes a restorative approach to addressing violations of the Residence Community Standards Policy and House Rules. When appropriate and with full voluntary participation, they may have restorative meetings (facilitated conversations focused on repairing harm and rebuilding trust), restorative conferences (bringing together those harmed, those who caused harm, facilitators, community members, and support people), or community resolutions (informal discussions to identify harm and solve the problem collaboratively) depending on the context and the willingness of those involved.