Case Brief Cletis L. Sawyer, Jr.

Failure to Focus on the Discipline of Black Girls: Encouraging School Leaders to Initiate

Conversations

 Summary of the situation (one-paragraph)

This case takes place at Harmony, suburban high school, where Principal Amy Shaffer

notices her staff are exhibiting behaviors that are supported by school policies that marginalize

black girls, and also make them feel invisible. This case identifies three black girls—Reagan,

LaKendra, and Sarafina—and details their experiences of being ostracized in the school by their

teachers.

 The Unknowns: Student demographics

 Perspective/position analysis by actor/character in the case:

Principal Amy Shaffer felt as though teachers in Harmony Suburban High School presented

implicit biases that caused them to unfairly punish black girls in the school, effectively

making the girls feel discriminated against and ostracized. She employed tactics from one of

the books used in her principal preparation program, Courageous Conversations About Race

(Singleton & Linton, 2006), allowing her to tactically frame the situation and present it in a

non-threatening way to the staff. However, she made it clear that a change had to take place

immediately and gave the staff the proper tools to begin embracing their implicit biases.

 Statement of the primary problem and supporting evidence:

Case Brief Cletis L. Sawyer, Jr.

The primary problem of this case is that the Harmony Suburban High School’s Discipline

policies are often problematic for Black girls. The evidence is that all three of the black girls

were disciplined unfairly because the school’s policies were culturally biased. For example,

in the case of Reagan, the coach reprimands and embarrasses a student for the same

behaviors of the football team. In the case of LaKendra, the English teacher tries to have

LaKendra transferred from her class for not following the school-wide expectation of “I will

respectful” and includes comments in the referral that state that she is not suited for an AP

course due to “unconventional thinking, nonstandard speaking conventions, and rhetoric.”

 Statement of secondary problem(s) and supporting evidence:

The secondary problem is that the school risks legal liability for the staffs’ culturally biased

practices. The evidence for this problem is that LaKendra’s family’s attorney contacted the

school’s district attorney threatening to file a lawsuit.

 Proposed solution and justification

Principal Shaffer held a staff meeting to relay her observations and concerns in order to make

her staff aware of their implicit bias, provide professional development and make the

necessary changes to school policies to protect black girls and the school from potential

future lawsuits.

 Action Plan

The first step was to request a small committee of teachers be formed to review school

policies and practices that inadvertently target certain students. The second step was to
Case Brief Cletis L. Sawyer, Jr.

provide professional development to the entire staff as a prevention measure. Finally,

Principal Shaffer provided the staff three resources: (a) Pushout: The Criminalization of

Black Girls in Schools (M. W. Morris, 2016), (b) “Black Girls and School Discipline: The

Complexities of Being Overrepresented and Understudied” (Annamma et al., 2016), and (c)

“Ladies or Loudies? Perceptions and Experiences of Black Girls in the Classrooms” (E. W.

Morris, 2007).