The Implications of School Policing Practices: Shaping Racial and Gendered Antagonisms in Peer-to-Peer Relationships

• In Event: Interpersonal Interactions Within the Juvenile Justice System

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of school policing practices through a case study of a low-income suburban high school in the Northeastern U.S. The majority of the students are Black and Latina/o and many are immigrants. It shows how school securitization and harsh discipline shaped students' fear of victimization and racial and gendered perceptions of their peers. It also highlights how immigrant students learn racial and gendered stereotypes as part of their incorporation into U.S. society. My study suggests that the school’s punitive approach to school discipline and securitization led the Latina/o students to develop a racial fear of their Black peers. Latina/o students reported they felt school was unsafe and associated this fear with “dangerous” Black students and the school’s extensive security practices. In contrast, Black youth reported they felt safe at school. Yet, they also distanced themselves from their Black peers to avoid being stereotyped as “dangerous.” School security practices also reinforced stereotypes about Latina and Black girls. School staff chastised the girls for breaking the dress code and subsequently suspended them. As a result, both girls and boys denigrated Black and Latina girls as “scandalous” even though most of the girls themselves struggled with dress code violations.

Author

• Erin Michaels, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY