“It Started in Kindergarten:” Black Girls and the Exclusion that Follows

• In Event: Journeying From Home to Everywhere: Centering Black Girls and Women Across Learning Environments

Abstract

Objective & Theoretical Framework:
Youth incarceration rates have steadily declined since the mid-1990’s, however, the racial and gender disparities of who is most impacted by the juvenile legal system have increased. Studies demonstrate that Black girls are the fastest growing group of youth caught in the unforgiving tentacles of the U.S. juvenile legal system (Davis, 2020; Epstein et al., 2017; Morris, 2016). Similarly, school discipline data demonstrates that Black girls are far more likely to be referred to the office, suspended, and expelled more than any other group of girls (Annamma et al., 2019; Butler-Barnes & Inniss-Thompson, 2020; Perry & Morris, 2014). As a result, scholars have argued that Black girls experience unique forms of gender-based violence (Epstein et al., 2017) and anti-black racism known as anti-Black girl violence (Lindsey, 2018). Using anti-Black girl violence as a lens, I explore how Black girls describe their experiences with schooling both before and during their incarceration and how they make sense of it for themselves. Simultaneously, I engage their thinking around what it would mean to reimagine schools, including juvenile court schools, as spaces that centered their learning, development, and well-being as a way to foster their return back into our schools and communities.

Data and Methodology:
Data for this paper is derived from a larger three-year critical ethnography conducted in a midsize secure juvenile detention center. For this study I examined seven in-depth ethnographic interviews with five distinct self-identified Black girls who at the time of data collection were incarcerated. Girls were between the ages of 13 to 18 years old and all, except one, were pushed out of their school and into alternative schools. Additionally, I draw on field notes to also bring in other Black girls whom I observed and interacted with over the course of the two in person years who due to length of stay and/or other factors were unable to participate in the one-on-one interviews, but whose experiences and stories were still significant to the findings.

Results/Substantiated Conclusions:
Findings demonstrate that in most cases Black girls felt that their relationship to school had always been fraught starting “since kindergarten.” Black girls shared numerous examples of being unfairly punished, perceived as the aggressor, bullied by peers and teachers, and often being punished more harshly than others. In some cases, girls described incidences of actual physical violence on behalf of school resource officers and police officials. Still, I found that girls shared visions of schooling as it could be which often entailed more expansive learning opportunities, targeted reentry support, and mentorship.

Scholarly Significance:
As the gender and racial disparities related to school discipline and youth incarceration continue to grow it is important that school officials and juvenile practitioners alike assess the role of schooling in pushing Black girls further and further away to the point of removal. Instead, we should work with Black girls to create the conditions they need to flourish.

Author

• Julissa O. Muñiz, University of California - Los Angeles