School Security and School Removals: Examining Change over Time

• In Event: School Discipline in the 21st Century: Social Control Through Security and Punishment Approaches

Abstract

Scholars have long understood school’s use of surveillance technology to be part of the youth control complex, or carceral continuum. Still, questions remain about (a) how best to measure schools’ use of multiple surveillance technologies, and (b) how this is associated with schools’ punishment of students. Using a national-level two-wave longitudinal dataset, this study creates a multi-dimensional latent construct measuring school surveillance and examines how change in this construct is associated with changes in schools’ use of exclusionary punishment. The findings will be addressed in two parts. First, in terms of measurement, the findings point to the complexities in measuring schools’ overall approach to security and surveillance (rather than a single intervention), and are indicative of an approach that is not particularly planful or aligned. Second, the findings address how changes in this measure are linked with changes in the frequency with which schools remove students, with particular attention to differences across schools. The findings are considered in light of broader conversations about the securitization of schools and inequality in school-based punishment.

Authors

• Benjamin W. Fisher, University of Wisconsin

• Thomas J. Mowen, Bowling Green State University

• Samantha Viano, George Mason University

• Aishia A. Brown, University of Louisville

• Alex Widdowson, University of Louisville

• John H. Boman, IV, Bowling Green State University

• Kristina N. LaVenia, Bowling Green State University