Taking Our Position: Repairing The Breach In The Pipeline To The Legal Profession By Transforming The Impact Of Bias Against Black Girls In Student Discipline

Authors

Hon. Tiffany W. Brewer, Howard University School of Law

Abstract

This Article implores the legal profession to intervene in promoting accountability in remediating implicit bias and discrimination in school discipline decisions disproportionately impacting Black girls’ educational outcomes, given their significant impact in disrupting the pipeline to the legal profession. The lack of accountability for disparate school discipline policies has resulted in little progress in decreasing the school-to-prison pipeline for Black girls. As a result, failures to eradicate implicit bias and discrimination in educational systems threaten the pipeline of future Black women law students, lawyers, and judges. This Article contends that if the bias in current school discipline policies toward Black girls is left unabated, inevitably society will be deprived of their gifts, clients will be deprived of their expertise and perspectives, law school communities will be deprived of their thought leadership, and Black girls themselves will be deprived of fulfilling their passion and purpose in life. In Part I, this Article examines the legal profession’s diversity problem, particularly the legal profession’s struggle to retain and advance Black women attorneys within the profession. Part II explains the legal profession's initiatives to develop the pipeline to the legal profession for Black girls. Whereas Part III describes the disruption to the Pipeline due to bias, the "adultification" of Black girls, and the failure to see Black girls as worthy of protection from disproportionate discipline measures. In turn, this leads to a diminished prospects of a pipeline of future Black women law students, lawyers, and judges. The Article concludes in Parts IV & V with proposed recommendations on the role of the legal profession, educational systems, and public policy makers in reversing these trends, and it calls for fostering accountability in uprooting bias in school discipline on the primary and secondary school level, to equip girls for success rather than stifling their potential at the first sign of a potential disciplinary issue.

Recommended Citation

Brewer, Hon. Tiffany W. (2024) "Taking Our Position: Repairing The Breach In The Pipeline To The Legal Profession By Transforming The Impact Of Bias Against Black Girls In Student Discipline," Belmont Law Review: Vol. 11: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://repository.belmont.edu/lawreview/vol11/iss2/4