Former Viking helps St. Louis Park students talk it out

When a fight breaks out in the halls of St. Louis Park High School or students are struggling in class, former Vikings running back Oscar Reed tackles the problem by talking it out.

For eight years, the soft-spoken 67-year-old Mississippi native has worked at the high school, mentoring students and leading groups where students talk out their conflicts.

The premise behind the process, known as "restorative justice," sounds simple: Students sit in a circle in weekly meetings or after a conflict to talk about their concerns and build a sense of community. But Reed said the process can help deal with profound, decades-old issues such as the achievement gap between black and white students and the ever-present issue of school bullying.

"I've seen how it changes people," he said. "I've seen it change hearts."

Now he's taking the process a step further, offering voluntary training for St. Louis Park teachers this summer to spread the concept to classrooms, hoping to continue cutting the number of school suspensions. Instead of sending a teen home after a behavior issue, it's more beneficial, he said, to discuss the conflict, hold students accountable and keep them in class so they don't fall even further behind.

"He's just had this amazing thing here," said Jamie Williams, who has worked with Reed on restorative justice for two decades, helping schools build a stronger, safer sense of community and helping students better air conflicts or solve problems through mediation.

"I think slowly people are realizing what he's doing. I don't know any school district that's made the progress St. Louis Park has."

At the Minnesota Department of Education, School Climate Specialist Nancy Riestenberg said Reed's a role model and resource for the state. As of 2008, 30 percent of the state's school districts have integrated restorative measures into their operations through training or programs that encourage school staff to hold students accountable for their actions and resolve conflicts, not just punish students.

"Oscar has been a pioneer, an innovator, an experimenter and somebody who has helped develop best practices for restorative measures," Riestenberg said. "He's a nationally known trainer."

He's also a role model to teens, especially to young black men who can relate to him but may be skeptical about opening up in his group sessions. "He can be rather disarming for people who don't think they want to do touchy-feely emotional things," Riestenberg said. "He brings some real extraordinary life experiences to his work."

The Colorado State football star grew up in the South during the civil rights movement and moved to Minnesota after he was drafted by the Vikings as a running back. During his nine-year NFL career, he often got invited to speak to at-risk youth -- something he found he had a passion for. So when his football career ended, he made a second home in Minneapolis and a second career in youth advocacy.

"I found I could really enjoy that," Reed said. "It wasn't something I set out to do."

He and teammate Jim Marshall cofounded "Life's Missing Link," a nonprofit focusing on youth. After receiving training in restorative justice, Reed became a champion for using the mediation measures among young people. For years, he and Williams worked in schools from Minnesota to Arkansas and Arizona.

"We put it on the map," he said.

One of those schools was St. Louis Park High School, where he was invited to work eight years ago. When he started, he noticed a dramatic gap: Students of color were being suspended disproportionately from their white peers.

He's worked to change that, and suspensions overall have declined in his eight years working there.

"The kids have found another resource when there's a conflict," he said. "It builds community. Kids will really open up here when normally they wouldn't."

A safe place to share

Two years ago, the school hired Reed on full-time as its multicultural liaison. His impact on teens, though, has gone much deeper than that.

As a giggly group of 19 junior and senior girls met last week -- one of six circle groups that gather at the school -- they shared for an hour their year-end thoughts, one-by-one.

"I didn't expect to be here," one said.

With pop containers and purses by their side, they talked about their fears of college and roommates. They joked about moving to towns where they will be among the few students of color. They told of high school triumphs, overcoming doubts or difficulty. They shared regrets.

"It's a safe environment that we feel like we can say things without being judged," senior Paris Delaney said later. "It feels good to know you aren't going through things by yourself."

For classmate Adrianna Breedlove, hearing from her peers who turned around grades or overcame challenges inspired her. "It makes me want to do better," she said, adding that the group is a place for people to listen. "Some people don't have that support at home."

Among the six circles, there are also separate groups for boys, for Latino students and for Somali students. Reed also intervenes in classrooms after a conflict develops between students or other issues arise. Delaney said it's helped create a climate at St. Louis Park where there's virtually no bullying.

While Reed said he still has more work to do after 30 years in schools, he knows he's made an impact. When rumors flew a few years back that a fight was going to erupt one day after school, students in Reed's circles quashed the showdown before it could begin.

"I knew then that what we're doing here is good," he said.

Kelly Smith • 612-673-4141