Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Morris’s last chapter is devoted to the future. Its opening pages recall a past interview with 17-year-old Heaven, who was incarcerated at the time. Heaven described how she sacrificed her own education to ensure her older boyfriend finished high school and told Morris that she was disappointed in herself for not juggling both her and her boyfriends’ educations. Morris then considers all of the girls Heaven represents, musing that, “For girls like Heaven, getting an education is not only a rehabilitative act; it’s an act of social justice” (174).

The rest of the chapter explores solutions to dismantle the pushout phenomenon and save Black girls and their educations. Morris reflects on her field work and identifies six themes that future solutions must tackle: protecting girls from violence in schools, educating girls about healthy relationships, building strong student-teacher relationships, establishing productive connections between schools and their communities, de-emphasizing student discipline and surveillance, and making school credit recovery processes available for girls.

Morris then delves into targeted goals for changing the structure and function of the American education system, explaining why such changes are significant and how they can be achieved. First, all solutions must honor the Black girls’ intersectional identities and experiences.