ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to open the doors of public schools and bring us inside the girls' lives. Because marginalized identities are not interchangeable and multidimensional oppressions are contingent on the historical, social, political, and economic contexts, it was essential to explore them. The chapter focuses on how the institution of school shaped and responded to girls and their actions and situates the girls' narratives in context. It describes the ways girls' access to education, resources, and the benefits of attaining an education were destroyed through systemic divestment. The chapter shows how school begins as a respite for many of the girls, but through creative destruction—the processes in which white supremacist ableism actively removes resources from multiply-marginalized disabled girls of color—public schools criminalize difference in a prison nation. The chapter argues that the education debt is perpetuated through a cycle of destruction and creation that multiply-marginalized girls of color experienced in schools.
