Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Monique W. Morris opens her book by describing an incident from the summer of 2015 where 14-year-old Dejerria Becton was physically and verbally assaulted by Corporal Eric Casebolt in McKinney, Texas. The author argues that Becton’s story is one example in a growing number of incidents that showcase Black girls’ struggles with police violence and persecution. While this instance elicited public outrage (largely due to videos of the event released on social media), Morris points out that individual cases involving Black girls and women suffering police brutality are never studied on a larger, systemic scale; instead, most activist and advocacy efforts focus on Black men.

Further, the persecution of Black girls is not confined to the streets. Morris, introducing the main thrust of her book, asserts that the criminalization of Black girls extends into the school system, where Black girls are victims of harsh punitive discipline that results in detentions, suspensions, and expulsions, pushing them out of educational spaces and into criminal ones. Morris states, “Black girls are being criminalized in and by the very places that should help them thrive” (5).

The Introduction briefly reviews the historical importance of educating Black girls. Because education was—and continues to be—among the most powerful tools of liberation for Black Americans, it is the routine site of control and oppression by those in power.