Secondary Discipline: The Unintended Consequences of Zero Tolerance School Discipline for Low-Income Black and Latina Mothers

Abstract

Utilizing ethnographic data from a public Grade 6 to 12 Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) in Texas, this article examines the frequently overlooked impact of zero tolerance school discipline on parents. The analysis focuses on three disciplinary practices: (a) Mandatory Parent/Student Orientation, (b) Night Classes, and (c) Requests for parent–staff meetings. Findings reveal the DAEP exposed parents, in particular low-income, Black and Latina mothers, to what I term “secondary discipline,” where they became targets of program discipline alongside their children. Secondary discipline was not neutrally applied to all parents by program staff, but was informed by racialized, classed, and gendered discourses.