From Conviction to Suspension: Examining U.S. Laws, School Discipline Policies, and the Educational Deprivation of Black Students

• In Event: 41.071 - Learning While Black: Addressing the Educational and Social Deprivation of Black Students in Schools

Abstract

The disparate impact of school discipline policies on Black students may greatly contribute to their below par educational outcomes, limited academic opportunities, and possibly their overall negative school experiences. The racial disparities that exist between Black and Brown students and their White peers are not simply due to the sometimes inappropriate enforcement of discipline policies, but they are a part of a larger problem. Inequitable school discipline policies, which are often the beginning of the school-to-prison pipeline for Black youth, are a societal issue rooted in the United States’ history of creating laws that promote racism and the criminalization of Black people (Fasching-Varner, Mitchell, Martin, & Bennett-Haron, 2014). This practice continued in school systems, particularly after schools were forced to desegregate after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights began placing desegregation orders on school districts across the country in the late 1960s. School districts responded with desegregation measures that included busing students and the proliferation of magnet schools in the 1970s. As more schools desegregated, the rate of school suspicions and expulsions increased for Black students.
In 1974, 1.7 million (3.7%) students were suspended, which is almost half of 2006 levels of 3.3 million, or 6.8% of the student population. Since the Children Defense Fund’s publication on school suspicions was released in 1975, myriad studies have reported that Black students are disciplined at a higher rate in U.S. schools (e.g., classroom reprimands, office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions) (Ferguson, 2000; Losen, 2011; Morris, 2005; Rocque, 2010; Skiba et al., 2002; Wallace et al. 2008). In 2012, a report on school discipline showed that one out of six Black children are suspended at least once in their academic career (Losen & Gillespie). About 40% of students expelled in schools are Black (Morris & Perry, 2016). A large percentage of these students are ultimately referred to law enforcement and placed in the custody of the juvenile court system. Approximately 70% of students involved in “in school” arrests or referrals to law enforcement are Black or Latino. Although these statistics may be disturbing, they should not be surprising because the U.S. has consistently employed exclusionary laws and policies as a means of maintaining White dominance. Unfortunately, this too often has been to the educational detriment and deprivation of Black youth. This paper will consider the legal and political history that has produced these exclusionary discipline policies that criminalize our Black children. An implicit bias framework, which is largely examined in the fields of psychology and criminal law with regards to racial discrimination, is the lens used to analyze specific education laws and policies related school discipline and the school to prison pipeline. The author concludes with suggestions for using the implicit bias framework to produce more equitable laws as well as discipline policies and practices in schools.

Author

• Dana Thompson Dorsey, University of Pittsburgh