Critical Trauma Theory and School Discipline: A Practice Highlight for Contextualizing Racially Disproportional School Suspensions.

The article focuses on the intersection of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, systemic inequities, and racial disparities in school discipline, particularly suspensions and expulsions. It highlights that students of color (SOC) face disproportionate risks of ACEs due to historical and ongoing systemic oppression, which contributes to higher rates of disciplinary actions compared to their White peers. Using Critical Trauma Theory (CTT), an extension of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the authors propose guidelines for educators and researchers to contextualize discipline data through a lens of cumulative adversity, systemic oppression, and intersectionality. The article emphasizes expanding ACE measures to include broader adversities relevant to SOC, rejecting essentialist and deficit-based interpretations of trauma responses, and calls for trauma-informed, culturally responsive interventions that address structural racism in school discipline practices. [Extracted from the article]