We might start with Montravious Thomas, and how he lost his leg. In early September 2016, the 13-year-old Black boy was cited for disruptive behaviour at his home school, in Muscogee County, Georgia. School district administrators ordered him to spend four days at Edgewood Student Services Centre, an alternative school for children with behavioural difficulties. This was the first time that Montravious had ever been in trouble, and he did not have a history of violent outbursts or altercations.

On his first day at Edgewood, Montravious tried to leave the classroom to call his mother. A school behavioural specialist intervened, and ultimately body-slammed Montravious to the ground three times to prevent him from leaving the room. Montravious complained that his leg felt numb, and that he couldn't walk. School officials thought he was exaggerating about the extent of his pain. The same behavioural specialist then threw the boy over his shoulder and took him to the school bus, and Montravious was taken home.

But Montravious was not exaggerating. Later that night, his mother took him to the emergency room, and he was subsequently airlifted to a hospital in the nearby city of Atlanta. The internal injuries he sustained in the assault by the school official at Edgewood were severe. Doctors attempted several emergency surgeries to get blood flowing back to his limb. When these efforts failed, they told Montravious and his mother that the only choice left was to amputate his leg. His right leg.

In this text on critical policy theorising about Black-focused schooling, I start with Montravious Thomas because this child – and the act of violence committed against him – serve as meditations on Black education, and more specifically, on the role of social and education policies in either mitigating or exacerbating Black suffering in schools. In this specific case, Montravious was removed from his home school due to some violation of the school behavioural code. Yet, we know that Black children are more likely to be surveilled that any other racial(ised) group, and more likely to receive harsh disciplinary sanctions (Crenshaw, 2015; Ferguson, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 2011). The research suggests that Black parents and caregivers often experience frustration as they attempt to advocate for their own children in schools (Reynolds, Howard & Jones, 2013; Reynolds, 2015).