Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Morris analyzes the pushout issue through the lens of discipline. Specifically, the chapter is structured around the disciplinary philosophies prevalent in the American school system, the reliance on zero-tolerance policies, and how schools’ punitive policies exert racist and misogynistic attitudes. Chapter 2 also begins to introduce positive, progressive solutions alongside its critical analysis, marking an important turning point for the book as a whole.

Morris clarifies that a conversation about schools’ punitive policies must also address prejudice. She is making a more nuanced argument than simply stating that Black girls are disproportionately affected by punitive policies; though this statement is true, Morris insists the issue is deeper than just numbers. She is more concerned with analyzing why Black girls are perceived as having “bad attitudes” and what might trigger these students’ misbehavior in the first place. This perspective and goal reflect Morris’s main objective: She is not simply analyzing the problem of the pushout phenomenon but is actively seeking solutions.

As the chapter examines what triggers Black girls’ defiance, it reveals the close interrelation (and even interdependence) between school discipline, racism, and misogyny. Much of the scholastic discipline handed down to Black girls is due to the stereotyping, prejudiced lens through which educators view these students. Morris’s field work and interviews are particularly helpful in understanding this dynamic’s everyday expression. Consider the example of Marcus, a Black administrator in California who tells Morris, “You know, our babies can be kind of snappy […] The sisters bring a lot of attention to themselves […] They’re not docile” (59). Marcus was attempting humor with these comments, but through the thin veil of humor, deeper prejudices are revealed: He judges his own students, dismissing their stressed responses as rash disobedience.

The gravity of such comments is emphasized when they are compared to the individual accounts from students such as Shai, Malaika, Dee, and so on. The girls interviewed in this chapter clearly articulate how they felt ignored, oppressed, and criminalized in their school environments. These triggers (such as feeling disrespected, as in Dee’s case; or being surrounded by transphobic adults, as in Paris’s account) elicited certain behaviors from the girls as they attempted to assert their agency in these hostile spaces. Marcus’s judgmental statements, read alongside these emotional student accounts, highlight how American schools misunderstand and criminalize Black girls’ responses to triggering environments.

Morris’s close analysis of the Chicago school system further illuminates zero-tolerance policies’ role in schools’ misogyny and racism. This section of Chapter 2 reflects how low-poverty and under-performing schools rely on harsh punitive and surveillance procedures in the hopes that it will discipline (and ultimately, control) the student body. Once again, however, Morris’s field interviews become invaluable in observing the real-life effect of such policies, particularly on Black girls. While the students interviewed came from various Chicago schools, they all had similar observations. The girls all agreed that their schools felt like “mini-prisons” (74), described their discomfort over having invasive school resource officers (SROs) surveil the halls, and most notably, all reported the perverse power structure at play when SROs discipline students. For example, one particularly revealing anecdotal detail is that many SROs will pretend to be friends with students but then instigate arguments and even physical fights, all so “they can have something to talk about” (80). According to the girls interviewed, SROs use students for entertainment, while the students are punished by harsh zero-tolerance policies.

These accounts are emphatic when read next to Morris’s sociological analysis of SROs’ role in schools. She notes that SROs have “been cited as one of the largest contributing factors to the increased rates of student citations in the schools” which has led to “increased contact with law enforcement, and in some cases, the juvenile court, for actions that would not otherwise be viewed as criminal” (77). SROs are not only some of the primary enforcers of zero-tolerance policies that push students out of school—they also, according to Black girls’ own accounts, intentionally antagonize students to initiate situations leading to disciplinary action. This groundbreaking element is not only invaluable to the whole systemic understanding of the pushout phenomenon, but it would never have been discovered if not for Morris’s methodology of collecting real-life student accounts.

Next to her field work, perhaps the most important element of Chapter 2 is how Morris begins incorporating positive solutions into the textual framework. One of the chapter’s most important sections in this regard is titled “They’re Not Docile.” This section reviews educators’ and administrators’ role in establishing the school atmosphere and how they subsequently affect the experiences of Black girls. This section is structured around a comparative analysis between Marcus (the administrator from California) and Small Alternative High School, also in California. Morris observes that Marcus, an African American male, though well-meaning, simply reflected the depth and prevalence of misogyny toward Black girls with his comments. If Marcus represents the problematic norm of the American school system, then Morris’s incorporation of Small Alternative High School allows her to explore progressive alternatives. In her analysis of the Alternative school, Morris emphasizes that its educators listened, empathized with, and respected their students. While Marcus’s normative philosophy is what results in the use of zero-tolerance policies responsible for sky-high expulsion rates, the Small Alternative High School’s philosophy results in immediate diffusion: Morris describes how “teachers demonstrated compassion and effective communication […] They saw [their student’s] agitation and recognized her need to feel respected. She, in turn, responded by accepting their apology” (61). This comparative analysis then reinforces the first two chapters’ argument that Black girls’ “bad behavior” stems from environmental triggers that feed into their emotional stresses.

The close analysis of Small Alternative High School not only allows Morris to put forth possible solutions that can be implemented on a systemic scale in the United States, but it also allows her to prove those solutions’ effectiveness, as these different methods are already being successfully implemented in the United States. Doubly effective is Morris’s placement of her analysis of Small Alternative High School right after Marcus’s comments; the contrast emphasizes that these alternative solutions are especially effective next to the problematic norm. Notably, while only a few paragraphs are devoted to Marcus’s prejudicial attitudes, several pages analyze the philosophy and actions of Small Alternative High School. This difference in real estate between both analyses reveals Morris’s true goals; while she is interested in exposing problems, she is most interested in facilitating positive, productive solutions. With this comparative analysis and its proposed solutions, Chapter 2 begins positioning Morris’s text as more than a critical, theoretical book. Rather, Chapter 2 helps establish Pushout as an active text that can help build a roadmap to the future.