School Discipline, Race, and Ethnicity

Exclusionary Discipline

In 1975, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) reported the growing use of exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, in schools. These exclusionary discipline measures were often applied for nonviolent behavior and disrupted the educational opportunities of the affected students, pushing many to drop out of school. Of great concern was the suspension of African American students at twice the rate of other students. The CDF found that schools increasingly resorted to using exclusionary measures to address seemingly benign student infractions or personal problems and habits that schools determined to be problematic. For example, the CDF reported that students were suspended for being pregnant, having lice, and forgetting gym uniforms.

Since the 1970s, exclusionary discipline policies have continued to disproportionately target African American students, as well as Latino and Native American students. According to the Equity Project at Indiana University, African Americans are suspended at rates as much as three times more than other students. They are also overrepresented in expulsions and administrative referrals more than any other racial group. Although data on exclusionary discipline of Latinos and Native Americans is less consistent than for African American students, the Applied Research Center finds evidence of disproportionate disciplining of these groups in some geographical locations. One of the most high-profile and extreme examples of the racialized nature of exclusionary discipline in schools took place in Decatur, Illinois, in September 1999. A school fight broke out involving African American male students at a high school football game. In response, the Decatur school board expelled the African American students, including the victim, for 2 years. This case drew national attention after the involvement of Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, raising the issue of racism and inequity in school discipline across the United States. Because this altercation neither resulted in any serious injuries nor involved weapons, the punishment could have resulted in suspension. Instead, the school board unanimously voted to expel the students because they believed the students' actions to be “gang-like” and therefore extremely violent. The school board justified this unprecedented and harsh punishment under the school district's zero-tolerance policy.

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