Oceanside Unified reverses trend in student suspensions with restorative program NBC 7 San Diego [Video]

School takes up about a third of a student’s day. With so many personalities and personal circumstances coming together, sometimes, the tension spills over and starts a fight.

“He said something I didn’t like,” said Oceanside High sophomore Jesus Ramos, remembering a fight he got in two years ago. “And then I was saying something back, and then we just went from there. I threw the first punch.”

There’s almost always more to the story that shows where the behavior came from. For Ramos, he was overwhelmed at home.

“My mom just got divorced from my dad,” he said. “So, I was also moving away from my dad, coming over here and separating from my family and all that.”

The Oceanside Unified School District used to lean on a zero-tolerance policy that could suspend students on their first offense, until administration realized that wasn’t working. Instead of suspending Ramos, they …