Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

by Monique W. Morris

For many of the girls on the margins, their parents are also suffering from debilitating conditions of poverty, addiction, and their own tumultuous relationships with people and with schools. Diamond was calling for a different reality, at least when she walks into school. In other words, for girls who have a history of sexual exploitation and abuse, school cannot ignore them or what they experience outside school walls. Even though institutions are prone to reinforcing or replicating the norms of society, Diamond’s path reveals why schools should actively work to generate a different culture, one that doesn’t prioritize high performers over everyone else. Our public schools—especially for these girls—need to be a place of stability and consistency, a place where new norms can emerge. For too many kids, school is the only place they can learn how not to play the circumscribed role the rest of the world casts them in.