Ernest Hemingway’s famous 1940 novel, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” drew upon the work of John Donne, who asserted in 1624 that after the tolling of funeral bells, the question is not for whom the bell tolls, or for whom we should be grieving. He asserted that we should be grieving for each of us given our common humanity and connectedness. Exclusionary school discipline of any group based on race, or any other attribute impacts everyone. The Children’s Defense Fund Report (Edelman et al., School suspensions: Are they helping children? A report by the Children’s Defense Fund of the Washington Research Project, Inc., 1975) found that Black students were suspended two to three times more often than their White counterparts for more subjective and mild infractions that posed no threat to school safety. With current anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) campaigns, schools and universities are challenged to implement discipline policies and practices in a consistent manner, without regard to race. A systematic literature review and analysis was conducted using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens (Ladson-Billings and Tate, Teachers College Record 97(1):47–68, 1995) to explore suspension rates, causal theories, and factors contributing to disproportionate suspensions of Black students. Differential suspension rates were revealed between Black males and their Black female counterparts. Historically, Black males have been suspended more frequently than Black females. Since the 2010s, Black females received harsher discipline than Black males and White students. Over the past 50 years, hypothesized causes of racial discipline gaps included child and family deficits, misbehavior involvement, racism, and anti-school desegregation theories. Despite repeated calls for action and interventions, disproportionate suspension rates have not only persisted for Black students but have steadily risen.
