"Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected" by the African American Policy Forum

In 2014, a 12-year-old girl faced expulsion and criminal charges after writing “hi” on a locker room wall of her Georgia middle school, and a Detroit honors student was suspended for her entire senior year for accidently bringing a pocketknife to a football game.

In 2013, an 8-year-old girl in Illinois was arrested for acting out, and a 16-year-old girl in Alabama who suffers from diabetes, asthma, and sleep apnea was hit with a book by her teacher after she fell asleep in class. The student was later arrested and hospitalized due to injuries she sustained in her interaction with the police. Also in 2013, a 16-year-old in Florida was arrested when an experiment she tried on school grounds caused a small explosion,  and a 12-year-old girl was threatened with expulsion from an Orlando private school unless she changed the look of her natural hair.

In 2007, a 6-year-old girl was arrested in a Florida classroom for having a tantrum. Later that year, a 16-year-old girl was arrested in a California school for dropping cake on the floor and failing to pick it up to a school officer’s satisfaction.