Review of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Washington Post)

The statistics are startling: Black girls are disproportionately pushed out of school and into the criminal and juvenile justice system. Although they make up just 16 percent of America’s female student population, black girls account for more than one-third of all female arrests that take place on our school campuses, according to data from the Education Department’s office for civil rights. These young students are not only arrested but also frequently suspended or expelled from school, which often discourages them from pursuing a highly coveted tool for survival: an education.

Monique W. Morris, co-founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, has spent years listening to the black girls behind the statistics and concludes that the arrests and detentions often worsen the social, educational and economic struggles of an already vulnerable group. “Black girls are being criminalized (and physically and mentally harmed) by beliefs, policies, and actions that degrade and marginalize both their learning and their humanity,” she writes in her book “Pushout.”

Read the piece here.