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Critical Race Theory Of School Discipline

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School Discipline: An Analysis Through Critical Legal Studies and Critical Race Theory The enforcement and structure of school discipline demonstrate Critical Legal Studies’ theory of the relationship between law and society because disciplinary actions and punitive punishments in the education system disproportionately criminalize marginalized students, create a school-to-prison pipeline, and perpetuate racist power structures outlined in Critical Race Theory. Critical Legal Studies is the belief that law is not neutral, but rather reflects social, political, and economic realities. Additionally, it acknowledges that the law specifically advances the interests of the privileged, and disadvantages the marginalized. The movement focuses on underlying …show more content…

While black students make up 16% of all students, they make up 34% of the students who are arrested annually. Between suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests, black and Latino students lost 75,000 days of school in the 2007-2008 school year (Deruy, 2016). Over-policing in schools and criminalization of students of color play into Critical Race Theory’s idea of systemic and institutional racism. The institution of policing has a racist history and exhibits that in the present, which bleeds into the education system when they assert their authority in schools. More than 70% of students arrested in school in 2010 were black or Hispanic (Cohen 2016).The theory challenges the idea that the law enforcement system is neutral and fair, which is backed up by their practices of disproportionately arresting black students. The implicit biases of the officers and school officials are affecting their ability to police and enforce rules, subsequently enabling students of color from receiving an education. Arrests and suspensions from school are problematic beyond the loss of time in the

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