Aaron Kupchik, a sociology professor and author of "Suspended Education," unpacks the harmful effects of school suspensions, particularly on Black students. He discusses how suspensions disrupt education without improving behavior and reveals their historical roots tied to racial injustice post-desegregation. Kupchik illustrates the impact of implicit racial bias through compelling stories, urging a shift from punitive practices to restorative methods. His research highlights the need for reform to better support marginalized communities in the educational system.
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Marcus's Suspension Story
Marcus was suspended for simply standing up to sharpen his pencil, illustrating racial bias in school discipline.
This incident underlines how suspension can be senseless and rooted in implicit bias against Black students.
insights INSIGHT
Suspension's Segregation Roots
Suspensions surged after Brown v. Board of Education as schools resisted desegregation by removing Black students.
Suspension historically served as an unofficial tool to exclude Black students from formerly all-white schools.
insights INSIGHT
Harms of Suspension
Suspension harms students by worsening behavior and disrupting their education, increasing dropout and incarceration risks.
Suspended students and their communities face long-term negative social and economic consequences.
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Suspended Education: School Punishment, and the Legacy of Racial Injustice
Suspended Education: School Punishment, and the Legacy of Racial Injustice
School Punishment and the Legacy of Racial Injustice
Aaron Kupchik
Aaron Kupchik's "Suspended Education" examines the historical and contemporary issues surrounding school suspensions in the United States. The book reveals how suspensions, far from being an effective disciplinary tool, disproportionately affect Black students and perpetuate racial inequality. Kupchik meticulously traces the origins of widespread suspension practices back to the resistance against school desegregation. He argues that implicit biases within the education system contribute to the over-punishment of minority students. The book offers compelling evidence and proposes alternative approaches to school discipline that prioritize student well-being and equity. Ultimately, "Suspended Education" calls for a fundamental shift in how we approach school discipline, moving away from punitive measures towards more restorative and inclusive practices.
Every year, millions of public school students are suspended. This overused punishment removes students from the classroom, but it does not improve their behavior. Instead, suspension disrupts their education, harming the students, their families, and their schools. Black students suffer most within this broken system, experiencing a far greater risk of school punishment and the significant harms that accompany it. Many activists and scholars have considered how school punishment increases racial inequity, but few have thought to ask why. Why do we punish students the way we do, and why have we allowed this harmful practice to impact the lives of our nation’s children?
In Suspended Education: School Punishment and the Legacy of Racial Injustice(NYU Press, 2025), Aaron Kupchik takes readers to the root of the issue. Suspensions were not intended as a behavior management tool. Instead, they were designed to remove unwanted students from the classroom. Through statistical analysis and in-depth case studies of schools in Massachusetts and Delaware, Kupchik reveals how suspension rates skyrocketed after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, serving as an unofficial means of removing Black children from newly desegregated schools. His groundbreaking research traces the legacy of these segregationist movements, demonstrating that school districts with more desegregation-related legal battles from the 1950s onward suspend more Black students today. Combining expert analysis with compelling, accessible prose, Kupchik makes a powerful case for the end of suspension and other exclusionary punishments. The result is a revelatory explanation of a pressing problem facing all children, parents, and educators today.
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