Morris opens by describing 14-year-old Dejerria Becton's assault by a police officer at a McKinney, Texas pool party.

Morris establishes that during American slavery, people of color were fined or whipped if caught reading or writing.

Morris argues that Brown v. Board of Education failed to dismantle de facto segregation, leaving deep racial inequalities in schooling intact.

Morris coins the term 'school-to-confinement pathway' as a more accurate alternative to the insufficient 'school-to-prison pipeline' for describing Black girls' experiences.

Morris introduces intersectionality theory, arguing that Black girls face unique oppression because of their combined identities as Black and female.

Morris introduces 'ghettoized opportunity,' arguing that education quality in America is stratified along class and racial lines.

Morris describes six-year-old Desre'e Watson being handcuffed by police for having a 'bad tantrum' at her Florida elementary school.

President Clinton signs the Gun Free Schools Act, introducing zero-tolerance policies into American schools for the first time.

The Columbine High School shooting triggers a major expansion of zero-tolerance policies to cover a far wider range of student offenses.

Morris introduces the 'jezebel' stereotype, tracing its origins to enslaved Black women being labeled hypersexual to justify their abuse.

Morris reveals that Black girls make up 35% of girls in juvenile correctional facilities despite comprising under 14% of the total girl population.

Morris describes juvenile court schools as hyperpunitive environments where teachers can impose solitary-confinement-style punishments on confined Black girls.

Morris identifies six core themes — including protecting girls from school violence and rebuilding school-community connections — that all future solutions must address.

Morris proposes that school dress codes be co-created collaboratively with students rather than imposed on them by administrators.

Student Jennifer tells Morris in a California detention center to simply 'tell the truth' about Black girls' experiences, guiding the book's final form.

Morris opens by grounding her argument in the 2015 police assault of Black teenager Dejerria Becton, establishing that Black girls are systematically targeted by institutional violence. She traces this criminalization through history, from slavery-era prohibitions on Black literacy to Brown v. Board of Education's failure to achieve true educational equality. Morris introduces two foundational concepts — ghettoized opportunity and the school-to-confinement pathway — to explain how the education system actively funnels Black girls away from learning and into confinement. She then examines the specific mechanisms driving this pushout: zero-tolerance policies born from the Gun Free Schools Act and expanded after Columbine, the jezebel stereotype that sexualizes Black girls in classrooms, and the brutality of juvenile court schools that worsen rather than remedy their situations. After mapping these interlocking systems of oppression, Morris pivots to solutions, proposing collaborative reforms like student-designed dress codes and community-connected schools. The pool closes with student Jennifer's request that Morris simply tell the truth about Black girls' experiences — a reminder that the book itself is an act of collaborative advocacy.

The core argument: how America's school system criminalizes and pushes out Black girls.

Morris recalls working with incarcerated youth when an 11-year-old girl proudly describes her employment as a sex worker.

Morris introduces W.E.B. DuBois's concept of 'double consciousness' as an early intellectual foundation for intersectional theory.

Morris credits legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw with formally coining the term 'intersectionality' to describe overlapping systems of oppression.

Morris cites that 58% of Black students who left school were attending high-poverty, low-performing schools nationwide.

Destiny, a Black student, is labeled disruptive and punished by her teacher for asking questions during class.

Faith tells Morris she has been permanently labeled 'disrespectful' because, in her words, 'I've always got something to say.'

Marcus, a Black California school administrator, dismisses his Black female students as 'snappy' and 'not docile' while speaking with Morris.

Chicago students uniformly describe their schools as 'mini-prisons' under constant surveillance by school resource officers patrolling every hallway.

Interviewed Chicago girls reveal that school resource officers deliberately instigate arguments and physical fights among students for entertainment.

Fourteen-year-old Diamond tells Morris about her employment as a sex worker and explains how it causes her to miss school.

Jennifer from the Bay Area describes how the financial lure of sex work kept her out of class while no school staff sought to help her.

Student Deja is disciplined for wearing shorts on a hot day while a white classmate in shorter shorts receives no punishment.

Student Carla tells Morris that media portrayals of Black girls as hypersexual directly inform how educators punish them in school.

Portia calls her juvenile court schooling 'a waste of my time' because classes only cover material she already knows.

Morris calls on schools to hold meaningful in-depth discussions with Black girls about sexism and its everyday intersection with racism.

This pool traces the evidence behind Morris's argument through the voices of real Black girls and the research that supports their experiences. Morris begins with intersectional theory — rooted in DuBois and formalized by Crenshaw — to explain why Black girls face uniquely compounded oppressions in schools, then grounds that theory in data showing that nearly 60% of Black students who leave school were attending high-poverty institutions. Case studies of Destiny and Faith reveal how girls are labeled defiant and disrespectful simply for speaking up in class, while in Chapter 2, administrator Marcus and Chicago students expose how prejudice and surveillance-heavy school cultures make Black girls feel imprisoned. Chapter 3 introduces Diamond and Jennifer, whose experiences with sex trafficking and indifferent schools show how easily the system abandons girls in crisis, while Deja and Carla illuminate the role that media-fueled stereotypes play in how educators police Black girls' bodies. The pool ends with Portia's despair over her wasted time in juvenile court school and Morris's call for schools to finally hold honest conversations with Black girls about the sexism they navigate every day.

The case studies and data behind the pushout phenomenon, told through Black girls' own voices.

Morris argues that for enslaved Black women, learning to read represented a reclamation of human dignity and a challenge to oppression.

Morris introduces Angela Davis's scholarship on the intersection of race and gender as a direct precursor to her own argument about Black girls.

Morris introduces the 'permission to fail' phenomenon, where teachers' negative labels become self-fulfilling prophecies that destroy Black girls' academic confidence.

Morris exposes the 'angry Black woman' stereotype, arguing that pop culture has weaponized this mischaracterization against Black female students in classrooms.

Morris analyzes the Amos 'n' Andy Show, demonstrating how mid-century media cemented harmful stereotypes of Black women that persist in culture today.

Morris presents Small Alternative High School in California as proof that teacher compassion and effective communication can successfully replace punitive discipline.

Morris introduces the 'pullout' concept, arguing that sex trafficking pulls financially desperate Black girls out of school rather than schools pushing them.

Morris argues that when schools expel girls involved in sex trafficking, they effectively hand those girls directly over to predators on the street.

A school administrator tells Deja, 'Don't be letting the boys feel all on you,' exposing how educators project adult sexuality onto Black girl students.

Morris reveals that 81% of girls in the American juvenile justice system have a diagnosed mental illness, which carceral schools routinely worsen.

Confined student Mia reveals that teachers in juvenile court schools can strip away girls' recreation, communal meals, and all social contact as punishment.

Seventeen-year-old Heaven, incarcerated at the time of her interview, reveals she sacrificed her own education to help her older boyfriend finish high school.

Morris proposes that schools implement routine professional development workshops to expose and address teachers' implicit racial and gender biases toward Black girls.

Morris discloses in her Epilogue that she herself was a victim of childhood sexual assault, grounding Pushout as a deeply personal work of advocacy.

Morris acknowledges Pushout's limitations on media representation and calls on other scholars to continue intersectional research centered on Black girls' lives.

This pool charts the analytical revelations and emotional turning points that transform Pushout from a policy critique into a moral call to action. Beginning with the historical truth that enslaved Black women risked severe punishment to reclaim their dignity through literacy, Morris builds a case that the same forces of control have simply taken new form in modern schools. She exposes how everyday cultural products — from the Amos 'n' Andy Show to contemporary memes — perpetuate the stereotypes that educators unconsciously wield against Black girls, and presents Small Alternative High School as living proof that compassionate teaching is both possible and effective. A series of devastating revelations follows: that schools expelling sex-trafficked girls deliver them to abusers, that a school administrator's comment to Deja reveals educators' deep sexualization of Black female bodies, and that 81% of girls in the juvenile justice system carry diagnosed mental illnesses that carceral schools only worsen. The pool closes in the Epilogue, where Morris discloses her own childhood sexual assault and acknowledges her book's limitations, transforming Pushout from an academic study into a deeply personal act of solidarity and a call for the collaborative scholarship that must follow it.

The revelations, emotional shifts, and solutions that give Morris's argument its moral urgency.