Disciplinary policies and procedures in a troubled inner-city high school in California were analyzed, as were teacher exchanges with students and parents. All of the students were black, but some of the teachers were white. It was found that the factors that disciplinarians use to mark troublemakers who need to be gotten rid of are the same factors that put children at risk for dropping out. Since urban black and Hispanic children disproportionately come from circumstances that interfere with their abilities to get an education, the policy of getting rid of troublemakers may be a mechanism for perpetuating the racial and class stratification that exists in the larger society. Further, reasons for disciplinary action often had more to do with protecting the school's authority rather than the safety and the education of the students. 2 tables and 46 references