Oppressive Pushout: Examining Differences in Supports, Dropout, and Discipline by Race, Gender, and Sexuality

• In Event: Using Large-Scale Education Data to Advance Intersectional Policies and Practices for Queer and Trans Students

Abstract

Purpose
The Sentencing Project estimated QT youth as 9.5% of the general population but 20% of youth confined within justice facilities (Stammen & Ghandnoosh, 2022). In 2016, GLSEN published a report examining the educational exclusion of QT youth. The intersections of QT youth and the school-to-prison pipeline remain under-researched, particularly concerning differences experienced across race, gender, and sexuality. The following question using HSLS:09 data guides our study:
1. Are there differences in supports, discipline, and dropout between QT BIPOC, QT white, cisgender/heterosexual BIPOC, and cisgender/heterosexual white students?

Theoretical Framework
We situate our analysis of QT youth and school discipline through the school-to-prison pipeline analytic. With the emergence of exclusionary and zero-tolerance policies beginning in the 1990s (Nolan, 2011), scholars examined how such policies impacted the educational experiences and trajectories of minoritized students (Christle et al., 2005; Noguera, 2003; Skiba et al., 2002). Although emergent research has begun exploring the intersections of QT youth, school discipline and school push-out practices (Caraves, 2018; Mitchum & Moodie-Mills, 2014; Rosentel et al. 2021; Snapp et al. 2015), our study advances the application of the school-to-prison pipeline in QT youth’s experiences with school discipline, placing a particular focus on school discipline as a form of racialized, gendered, and heteronormative policing of QT BIPOC youth’s identity and expression (Payne & Smith, 2016).

Methods and Results
We performed chi-square analyses to compare dichotomous discipline and push-out variables from HSLS:09 by sexuality, gender, and race. We similarly examined talking to supports about personal problems, which could mitigate factors contributing to push-out. Compared to cishet BIPOC, cishet white, and QT white students, QT BIPOC students had significantly higher rates of skipping class, dropping out, and suspension/expulsion (p < 0.001). Additionally, QT BIPOC students have fewer supports with whom they discuss personal problems (p < 0.001). Interestingly, QT BIPOC students were more likely to seek out support through school resources than their cishet and white peers, who relied more heavily on familial support. This finding reflects that QT students may not feel comfortable discussing their sexual and gender identities with their parents, but it also unearths an unsettling relationship between talking with school counselors about personal problems and increased school discipline, which warrants further exploration. Tables 1 and 2 summarize these results.

Scholarly Significance
This paper contributes to critical scholarship that situate educational institutions as a carceral apparatus (Shedd, 2015) by examining QT BIPOC youth’s experiences with school discipline policies, and utilizes the concept of racialized, gendered, and heteronormative policing to analyze their experiences (Payne & Smith, 2016). We connect the over-policing and hyper-surveillance of QT youth to the push-out of QT youth in the education pipeline (GLSEN, 2016). Push-out has dire impacts, namely increased involvement in the criminal justice system, homelessness, increased rates of violence, substance abuse, and negative psychological and physiological outcomes (MAP & Center for American Progress, 2016). This paper advocates for abolitionist praxis and pedagogies that disengage from all forms of policing and surveillance, and the eradication of harm experienced by QT BIPOC youth (Rodriguez, 2010).

Authors

• Danielle N. Aguilar, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author

• Taylor Lewis, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Jude Paul Matias Dizon, California State University - Stanislaus
  Presenting Author

• Pearl Lo, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Angel D. Gonzalez, California State University - Fresno
  Presenting Author

• Jason C. Garvey, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author