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232. Dr. Sydney McKinney on Pushout and the Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
Episode 232
Published 2 weeks ago
Description
Angela Reddock-Wright sits down with Dr. Sydney McKinney, executive director of the National Black Women's Justice Institute (NBWJI), for a data-driven and deeply personal conversation on the criminalization of Black girls in schools and the lifelong consequences that follow. Marking NBWJI's 10th anniversary, Dr. McKinney unpacks her organization's groundbreaking research — from its Black Girls Pushout and Criminalization in Schools Dashboard to its Sisters in Solidarity Re-entry Network — tracing the through-line from school discipline disparities in kindergarten to adult incarceration, and from gender-based violence to failed re-entry systems.
Key Topics Covered:
- How NBWJI uses research and data as tools for social change — from dashboards tracking national school discipline disparities to program evaluations supporting formerly incarcerated Black women navigating health, housing, and re-entry
- How Black girls account for just 15% of the public school student body yet represent 49% of all girls expelled nationally — and why they are the only group over-represented in every single category of school discipline sanction
- How zero tolerance policies, rooted in post-Columbine school safety culture, rely on exclusionary discipline that directly contradicts what brain science tells us about healthy adolescent development
- How the school-to-prison pipeline is not only a crisis for boys — and how the 360-degree connection between school pushout, juvenile legal contact, gender-based violence, and adult incarceration shapes the lives of Black women and girls across the country
- How NBWJI's Creating Affirming, Responsive, and Equitable Schools Mental Health System Assessment gives schools a research-backed, Black-girl-centered tool to audit and strengthen their mental health systems
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