Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Monique W. Morris

Sep 2016 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Kristyl Dawn Tift

About this audiobook

Fifteen-year-old Diamond stopped going to school the day she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school. Just sixteen percent of female students, black girls make up more than one-third of all girls with a school-related arrest. The first trade book to tell these untold stories, Pushout exposes a world of confined potential and supports the growing movement to address the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures. For four years Monique W. Morris chronicled the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged-by teachers, administrators, and the justice system-and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Morris shows how, despite obstacles, black girls still find ways to breathe remarkable dignity into their lives in classrooms, juvenile facilities, and beyond.

Ratings and reviews

"It's time for a paradigm shift." This book is a transformative experience to listen to, read along while listening to, sit with, dialogue with, and ground actions from. I recommend taking time with it. Only regret is that I didn't read nor have this book available back when I was a high school student. If u are a teacher or have any responsibility to our youth, give them this book!

Eye opening

About the author

Monique W. Morris, cofounder of the National Black Women's Justice Institute, is the author of several books, including Pushout and Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two daughters.

Kristyl Dawn Tift is an Atlanta-based actress, singer, and narrator whose voice has been described as "warm," "engaging," "versatile," and "dynamic." She holds an MFA in acting from the New School for Drama in New York City, and has been performing professionally since 2004.