From Culturally Sanctioned Behaviors to Suspendable Offenses for African American Youths

Background: Prior studies on out-of-school suspension have produced considerable knowledge about the causes and types of suspendable offenses; the influence of poverty and family background; and the varying effects of race, gender, and disability. Amongst scholars, there is general agreement that exclusionary school discipline practices can potentially lead to lower school commitment, higher rates of dropout, and increased involvement with the criminal justice system. Nationally, the odds of a Black child receiving out-of-school suspensions are 1.78 times that of a White child with Black boys being 3.5 times more likely to be suspended (Carter, Fine, & Russell, 2014; Finn & Servoss, 2013). This disproportionality still exists despite the fact that Black children have been found to commit similar kinds and numbers of offenses as their white peers (Skiba, 2002). Despite the increasingly disproportionate suspension of Black youth there is still considerable debate about how race and/or racial bias may influence the existing school discipline gap. Using critical race theory, this paper addresses how the behaviors of African American students are potentially socially constructed into suspendable offenses from the perspectives of suspended students, their caregivers, and educators.

Methods: Sixty-nine in depth, semi structured interviews were conducted with suspended students, their caregivers, and educators. Participants were 28 Black youth, aged 11-17 (64 % male); their primary caregivers (n=25); and educators (n=16). Youth and their caregivers were recruited via introductory letters and telephone calls from school generated lists of suspended students. Recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. Through repeated readings of the transcripts and listening to recorded interviews, emic codes were induced (Schwandt, 2003) by three independent researchers. Member checks and peer debriefing strengthened the credibility of our interpretations (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

Findings: The majority of participants expressed a belief that race played a role in out-of-school suspensions (67%). Youth and their caregivers generally felt that prejudicial beliefs and behaviors on the part of educators, preferential treatment for white students, and the systematic targeting of African American students for disciplinary infractions were factors that contributed to disproportionalities in suspension. Caregivers expressed a belief that educators used out-of-school suspensions to exclude Black children from the educational environment who exhibited what they perceived as problematic behaviors. Caregivers also tended to emphasize educators’ lack of cultural competence as a primary contributing factor in the disproportionate number of African American youth receiving suspensions. Coinciding with these observations, some educators and students attributed disproportional suspension rates to problematic behavioral characteristics specific to Black students. In particular, participants noted that African American youth were more confrontational with teachers and physically and verbally antagonistic with peers and classmates.

Implications: Findings suggest that educators who lack cultural knowledge can misinterpret African American youth behavior as maladaptive or disordered. The misattribution of negative labels to normative African American youth behaviors can potentially foster an environment wherein which African American youth identities are criminalized and punished (Rios, 2011). As a result, disruptive, disrespectful and violent behaviors are encoded as endemic to African American youth populations which are then subsequently regarded as inherently pathological.