PUSHOUT was created by Dr. Monique W. Morris, a bestselling author, social justice scholar and the founder and president of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI). The documentary is based on two of Dr. Morris’s books, PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools and Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues. The documentary exposes a new and troubling trend: African American girls are the fastest-growing population in the juvenile justice system and the only group of girls disproportionately experiencing harsh discipline at every educational level. PUSHOUT features heart-wrenching stories from girls ages 7 to 19 across the country as they narrate the personal challenges they have encountered in their learning environments and beyond, and also offers insight from noted experts across the country who have worked in social justice, gender equality and educational equity, and explores critical interventions that have been effective in interrupting the criminalization in schools.   

The PUSHOUT documentary is the catalyst for a larger initiative that launched last fall, which has already had an amazing impact on the narrative about why Black girls, and other girls of color, experience exclusionary discipline and what we can do to better support them. The film has screened in nearly 100 communities around the country and counting to spark discussion. In addition, policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels have responded favorably to the documentary as a much-needed tool to raise awareness about the criminalization of youth in schools—some district leaders are already actively pursuing and developing policies to shift outcomes. Inspired by the film, a significant development in the effort is the Ending PUSHOUT Act of 2019, a federal bill introduced December 2019 by Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).