Subsequently, the disproportionate rate at which Black students are mistreated continues to skyrocket. The fact that the police and educational institutions are involved in the harmful treatment of Black students means that there is no one at an authoritative level that is taking a step forward in protecting minor Black children the way they should be. It was found that although black Caribbean children make up only 5% of secondary school students, over 17% of strip-search cases are related to them. In many cases, police have been found to treat young Black girls in a horrifying manner when called to schools for investigations, strip searching them at such a vulnerable age. The over policing of Black students comes as a result of the stereotypes that they are more aggressive, less innocent and the type of people to be protected from instead of the type of people to be protected. The term “adultification” describes a form of prejudice in which children from a minority group are made to seem less innocent based on their racial or ethnic identity. There is also significant evidence of over policing of Black students in British schools, leading to the adultification of young Black children. In the long run, then, instead of eradicating prejudices, the unfair treatment of Black students perpetuates them. When the school administration can penalize Black students for their forms of expression, students follow suit in teasing, bullying and discrimination against Black children. These policies do not only directly impact the education of Black people by kicking them out of school all together, on the basis of cultural identity, but they further the injustice against Black students by giving it an excuse to continue. Instead, they come from the discriminatory discipline policies that target Black pupils like the banning of black hairstyles, kissing teeth and fist bumps, among other things. Instead of teaching a child a lesson, like school discipline is supposed to do, the disproportionate rate of exclusions among Black students sets them up for failure and criminalization.įor some Black students, however, their exclusions have nothing to do with crime at all. “When someone gets kicked out of school pushed right into the groomers’ hands.” Stefan, someone who was excluded from his school, testified in the report that this was the case for him. For some Black students, when going to school is off of the table, they must find another way to sustain themselves. Statistics prove that many of those who receive cautions or sentences for offences have previously been excluded from schools. The upward trend in exclusions handed out to young Black students later leads to the criminalization of Black people and their overrepresentation in the country’s jails. Similarly, there was a 40% increase on temporary exclusions. Across England the report found that over seven years, there was a 55% increase in the number of students being permanently excluded from schools. It shared the stories of many Black students who had been impacted by discrimination in their schools, and then proposed recommendations that schools should take into account.Įxclusions are a form of discipline practiced in schools across the West, but they often disproportionately impact Black students.
The report detailed the exclusion of Black students in schools, their adultification and the discrimination they face - from subtle racism to overt expressions of it. A recent Commission on Young Lives report in England shows that it is often in schools that racism and prejudices start, especially targeting Black students. But while this can definitely be the case, systemic practices in the West mean that educational institutions are not always geared towards being just. Education is hailed as the key to establishing a world built upon more just foundations.