“They Slow Me Down”: Peer Relationships, School Fights, and the Criminalization of Black Adolescent Development Through School Discipline Policies

We sought to understand the school and legal experiences of “at-risk youth”. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with Black adolescents (aged 15–19) participating in a youth program. Based on a narrative analysis, three core narratives emerged—(a) school staff and family members as motivating school success; (b) unsupportive peer relationships that “slow youth down”; (c) the occurrence and recurrence of school fights. Youth identified their families, school staff, and elementary school friends as their support network. In contrast, new high school peer relationships were identified as the underlying cause of school fights. Zero-tolerance school discipline policies enacted after a school fight (suspensions, arrests, and transfers to alternative schools) perpetuated and sustained conflict between students. Using abolition and ecological systems as a theoretical lens, this study provides a conceptual model identifying school fights as a major mechanism of the school-prison nexus and offers recommendations for school social workers.