Breaking a Bitch: Styleshifting for Survival and the Mental Health Impacts of School Discipline

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Abstract

This paper examines the mental health impacts of race-neutral school discipline policies on Black and Latinx girls, drawing from the 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, discourse excerpts, and raciolinguistic theory. We argue that discipline functions as carceral surveillance, policing how girls speak, move, and exist in school spaces. One student said, “I tried to talk more proper but still got in trouble”; another, “I stopped speaking Spanish because it made me unsafe.” These are theories of survival. This is referred to as Styleshifting for Survival™: embodied strategies adopted in response to institutional misrecognition. We call for a reimagining of school safety centered on healing, language sovereignty, and radical listening to girls’ truths.

Authors

• Diedra W. Carlson, University of Minnesota

• Aracely Thomas, University of Minnesota