Monique Morris, co-founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute and author of Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century, interviewed black girls in juvenile detention in Northern California. They were among the 42,000 youth attending juvenile court schools in California in 2012. Among her findings:
* They value their education. Ninety-four percent of the girls in this study reported their education to be either very important or important to them, and nearly as many said their education was equally as important to their parents or guardians, where applicable.
* They have a history of exclusionary discipline in their district schools. Eighty-eight percent had a history of suspension, and 65 percent had a history of expulsion from non-juvenile court schools; half cited elementary school as their earliest experience with suspension or expulsion.
* They experience exclusionary discipline while in detention, too. Almost all had been removed from a juvenile court school classroom, and one-third of these girls believed it was because they simply asked the teacher a question. Two-thirds reported it was the result of “talking back” – but in each case, the student felt she was responding to an unprompted, negative comment made by the teacher. One participant recalled, “She called me retarded in front of the class… I have a learning disability.”
and, notably:
* They have goals, but they don’t know how to reach them. Eighty-eight percent had ideas of their occupational goals, with one-third indicating they would like to be a staff counselor at the juvenile hall. However, 73 percent felt their education was not preparing them for their future.
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