Zero tolerance discipline policies like ‘No Excuses’ have been scrupulously crafted, packaged and sold to low income people of color as the prescription for academic proficiency, social and emotional consciousness and career excellence by staunch urban education reformers. However, there has been heavy backlash regarding its efficacy from former ‘No Excuses’ school teachers, parents and educational researchers. Researchers contend that the policies are racist, discriminatory, harsh, ineffective, and closely linked to the prison pipeline. Ironically, many of the students who attend schools with strict zero tolerance discipline policies like ‘No Excuses’ happen to be young Black males who have faced or are facing an inordinate amount of cumulative trauma. Yet, few research studies exist questioning if the sophisticated discipline structure carries not only intellectual and ethnic identity related hazards, but psychological and emotional ones as well. These lines of inquiry are significant and urgent, especially for historically hyper-racialized and over criminalized populations like Black boys. Therefore, this manuscript is dedicated to examining how prolonged exposure to cumulative trauma impacts the ways in which Black males navigate schools that utilize ‘No Excuses’ discipline policies and whether that exposure inhibits or enhances their ability to achieve academically in school. First, I discuss my personal narrative and interdisciplinary career experiences that provide significant background for which this dissertation study emanated. After that, I critically analyze research on the history of zero tolerance discipline policies in K-12 schools, keeping in mind how administrators (e.g., deans of students, principals, superintendents) and government officials contribute to the formulation of legislation and implementation of these policies. Then, I contextualize the ‘No Excuses’ charter school culture by reviewing the literature from the perspectives of school discipline, student outcomes and long-standing media debates, mostly from highly regarded charter management organizations (CMOs), like Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). Next, I discuss the varied effects of cumulative trauma on Black males and how ‘No Excuses’ school cultures might unconsciously trigger and exacerbate some symptoms of trauma, consequently stymieing normal adolescent development. Afterwards, I detail why qualitative research and specifically, a phenomenological case study method helped me to sustain the integrity of the participants’ sensitive data (Glesne, 2011), and uphold the individual insight of participants as it related to the phenomenon of cumulative trauma and not a regurgitated account from a divergent perspective (Smith & Osborn, 2007). The case study approach provided me ample space to inspect the cumulative trauma phenomenon through various lenses. Once I thoroughly explain the methodologies that undergird this very sensitive study, I critically highlight Black males’ perceptions of traumas and stressors, ‘No Excuses’ school culture and discipline, and whether the ‘No Excuses’ environment prepared them for college careers and successful lives. I also conduct a cross case analysis and break the findings into five emergent themes: (a) adaptation, comprehension and exposure to trauma, (b) preparation for prison, (c) triggers, identities and masculinities, (d) shell shocked, and (e) posterity. Last, I proffer a discussion of the key findings and how they contribute to various bodies of literature and provide recommendations and implications for both policy and practice in rethinking ‘No Excuses’ discipline policies.
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