Talking Emotional Safety: School Leaders and Language in a Chicago School Safety Reform

Abstract

This article examines the ways that school leaders used buzzwords when speaking about youth “emotional safety,” in a Chicago Public Schools safety reform aimed at reexamining the role of school policing. Drawing on observations from pandemic-era virtual school council meetings, we suggest a recognizable register of speech developed around the topic of emotional safety, which school leaders engaged to meet the political demands placed upon them by the district and the public.