The grammar of school discipline : removal, resistance, and reform in Alabama schools

The Grammar of School Discipline examines how seemingly discrete school discipline policies and practices constitute a particular grammar: Removal, Resistance and Reform.

Weaving numeric data with portraits of students and school practitioners, the authors detail a nuanced landscape of school discipline in Alabama and its anti-Black foundations.

The removal of Black students can be traced to the antebellum construction of Blackness as criminal, deviant, and deserving of punishment.

A focus on resistance centers the agency that students and practitioners exercise despite anti-Black removal.

An exploration of specific reform efforts emphasizes that even the most well-intentioned and well-organized reforms are limited when the removal of students remains an option for practitioners.

The authors end with an appeal to educational stakeholders to repair the harms that these anti-Black policies and practices inflict on students and communities, and thus move towards repairing the damage that white supremacy inflicts on everyone’s humanity.