Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in SchoolsFifteen-year-old Diamond stopped going to school the day she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school. Just 16 percent of female students, Black girls make up more than one-third of all girls with a school-related arrest. The first trade book to tell these untold stories, Pushout exposes a world of confined potential and supports the growing movement to address the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures. For four years Monique W. Morris, author of Black Stats, chronicled the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged—by teachers, administrators, and the justice system—and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Morris shows how, despite obstacles, stigmas, stereotypes, and despair, black girls still find ways to breathe remarkable dignity into their lives in classrooms, juvenile facilities, and beyond. |
Contents
1 | |
1 STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE | 16 |
2A BLUES FOR BLACK GIRLS WHEN THE ATTITUDE IS ENUF | 56 |
3 JEZEBEL IN THE CLASSROOM | 96 |
4 LEARNING ON LOCKDOWN | 135 |
5 REPAIRING RELATIONSHIPS REBUILDING CONNECTIONS | 170 |
EPILOGUE | 195 |
APPENDIX A GIRLS WE GOT YOU | 198 |
Resources and Programs for African American Girls | 220 |
APPENDIX B ALTERNATIVES TO PUNISHMENT | 222 |
METHODOLOGY | 243 |
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS | 247 |
NOTES | 250 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ability able actions adults African American approaches asked associated attention become behavior better Black girls Black women bodies boys cause Center Chicago child classroom color continued court criminal culture Department described detention develop discipline discussion district don’t dress effective engage environment expectations experience facilities feel felt female fight gender going harm high school idea identity impact important institutions Interventions involved it’s Justice juvenile learning lives look mean narratives opportunity parents percent person policies Positive practices present programs punishment question race racial relationships Research respect response restorative Restorative Justice sexual share social sometimes spaces stuff suspension talk teach teacher tell things tion trafficked trying understand University wear White York young women youth