Restorative Justice in the School Library

What do you do when a teen loses a library book? At the urban public high school library in Texas that I manage, I implement restorative justice practices for lost books as a way for students to make the library whole again. Use of restorative justice practices strengthens the students' relationship to the library as an institution, since they exert effort to replace the book or care for the space. This approach engenders greater understanding in the student of the harm caused to the library, potentially reducing loss of books in the future while not decreasing library use. The student population I serve is economically diverse, but I quickly learned that fines for lost books hurts everyone. Enforcing monetary fines creates a situation where students who are most in need of library resources are prevented from accessing them. Even allowing monetary fines as an option (which I don't) negatively impacts teens from wealthy families, since this punitive approach damages the student's relationship with the library; affluent teens will avoid this in the future by simply buying the book instead. In both cases, requiring payment for lost books alienates students from their library as an institution. By contrast, restorative practices deepen a teen's relationship to their school library regardless of family finances.