Punitive Exclusion and Therapeutic Support: Race, Gender, Class, and Multidimensional Control of High School Girls

Abstract

The 1980s brought a sharp upturn in punitive practices in U.S. schools. One negative result of harsh school discipline has been that poor students of color have been punished at disproportionate rates, with the racial disparity in sanctions being dramatic among girls. Some have argued that support services can undermine multiple inequalities in punitive exclusion, although very little research has examined how inequalities function in schools that offer support services as well as punishment. During a 13-year ethnography of girls’ experiences and school staff’s responses to students in one high school in Oahu, Hawai‘i, I found that school staff and girls had different definitions of safety. Elaborating on critical race, intersectional, and black feminist theories, I examine the disconnect between girls’ and staff’s understandings of school safety and offer a nuanced understanding of multiple exclusions in schools.