Although disparities between Black male students and their white peers dominate national conversations about education reform, research has revealed that Black girls suffer from even greater injustices.

According to a New York Times report, Black girls are more than five times likely than white girls to be suspended from school at least once. The Times’ analysis also found Black girls were seven times more likely to receive multiple out-of-school suspensions than white girls and three times more likely to receive intervention from law enforcement.

The report concluded that Black boys were subject to lower rates of discipline than Black girls in comparison to white students of the same gender.

In New York, a 12-year-old girl was sent to the nurse’s office and forced to undress because her teacher thought she had some substance that made her “hyper and giddy,” The Times reports.

Her mother, Zulayka McKinstry, is among other parents outraged by the school’s inappropriate procedures against their kids. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a federal lawsuit against Binghamton City School District last year and it’s case will rely heavily upon recent academic studies on Black girls.

“This case is about the criminalization of Black childhood,” Cara McClellan, a lawyer representing the girls, said.

Rebecca Epstein, author and the executive director of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, said Black girls are seen by educators as more mature, provocative and aggressive than white girls.

“Developmentally, Black girls and white girls are the same, regardless of any differences in outward presentation,” co-author of the Girlhood Interrupted study said.

In Epstein’s research, she found that Black girls as young as 5-years-old were viewed by adults as less innocent than white girls.

On July 20, a Michigan judge ruled that a Black high school student would not be released early from juvenile detention for failing to complete her remote learning course work, Blavity previously
reported.

Judge Mary Ellen Brennan said Grace, the alias provided for the teenage girl, is doing well under the care from a treatment program within the institution and recommended that the girl not return her home, yet.

The 15-year-old violated terms of her probation when she struggled to adjust to the new environment, failing to turn in virtual assignments.

The family's attorney said the girl is improving but they will continue to fight for her release as soon as possible.

"I miss my mom. I can control myself. I can be obedient," Grace said in response to the judge’s decision.

Sophia Lusala, a junior at Iowa City High School, said she deals with the damage from the “loud, sassy, Black girl” stereotype. While in math class last year, Lusala said she was sent to the hallway to calm down after asking her teacher why they decided not to go over a lesson.

“We’ve been in school growing our minds so that we can challenge things,” she told The New York Times. “But when we do so, we’re punished for it.”

The long-term harm from systemic racism in school discipline is underresearched, but scholars say it can have crushing effects.

“We talk about death a lot in the Black community. We see physical death a lot, but what we don’t see a lot is spirit murdering,” Bettina L. Love, education professor at the University of Georgia, said.

“When we talk about racism, we talk about it in terms of statistics and numbers,” she said. “But we don’t talk about what happens when you have to go into a school where nobody in that building believes you, or believes in you,” she continued.

In an August report by the Education Trust and the National Women’s Law Center, they requested school districts seek new models of discipline and remove suspensions and detentions for girls of color. It concluded these girls were experiencing “punishments that have more to do with who these girls are rather than what they do.”

As leadership nationwide becomes more diverse, women leaders are championing the issue on the front lines.

Last year, Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced a bill to combat the disproportionate discipline rates of Black students, with a focus on Black girls.

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