An Examination of Gendered Violence and School Push-Out Directed Against Urban Black Girls/Adolescents: Illustrative Data, Cases and a Call to Action

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Black girls/adolescents, a frequently neglected group, given a dominant focus on Black males and their risk status within the school-to-prison pipeline. This article provides a framework for the analysis of the gendered violence to which Black girls/adolescents are subjected while urging a shift in focus from individual-level behavior to a focus on social contextual, structural, and social determinant factors; this means a shift from focusing on proximal factors to distal or upstream factors operating as underlying mechanisms. Both illustrative data and cases are presented and analyzed to highlight how racial disparities in suspension, expulsion, and discipline—which disproportionately negatively impact Black girls/adolescents compared to White girls/adolescents—necessitate a major call to action to close these disturbing gaps.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clare Parks

Clare Parks, M.A. is a doctoral student in health education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Academic Coordinator at an after-school program in Harlem.

Barbara C. Wallace

Barbara C. Wallace, Ph.D. is a New York State Licensed Psychologist, Professor of Health Education, Coordinator of the Programs in Health Education & Community Health Education, and Director of Health Equity at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Christopher Emdin

Christopher Emdin, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education, and Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Ian P. Levy

Ian P. Levy, M.A., Ed.M. is a doctoral candidate in health education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a school guidance counselor.