The film Policing Joy is a 22-minute documentary that aims to stimulate a global conversation around Black girls' encounter with anti-black hair tactics in schools. Policing Joy uncovers the power Black girls must conjure up in order to navigate and survive school policies that police, punish, and eventually push them out of school. These policies are designed to police Black girls' bodily aesthetics (specifically hair)-- and in essence, their cultural state of being. Phenotypic-based attacks against Black females have roots in American chattel enslavement and to this day continue to drive systems of oppression, racism, and gender bias that pathologize Black female aesthetics. No clearer do we see the policing and violence against Black girls' physical form and phenotypic characteristics, such as hair, than here in the United States. A recent groundswell of national media coverage has shed light on a series of Black hair-related incidents within the context of K-12 schools. These incidents include Black girls being punished and discriminated against for wearing box braids, afros, colored hair extensions, and using coconut oil as a hair moisturizer. Similar incidents continue to crop up on social media and national news outlets almost on a daily basis. Even still, there are countless instances of hair bias and discrimination in schools that go unheard. In an effort to capture the human experience alongside Blackness, Policing Joy opens with Black women and girls reflecting on memories around their hair styling and grooming practices in anticipation of the first day of school. This intergenerational reflection illuminates the overlap between Black women and girls' schooling experiences across generations. Next, Policing Joy dives into the recent media coverage of Black girls experiences with hair bias in American schools. In this segment of the documentary, scholars and experts offer theoretical considerations that shape the schooling experiences of Black folks in the United States as an institution rooted in anti-black racism that perpetuates a cycle of harm for Black girls formed by psychological distress (bullying, anxiety, stress, depression, low self-esteem) leaving Black girls traumatized. This project then highlights Black girls' hair as a source of joy, cultural beauty, spirituality, and creative expression deeply rooted in ancient African ancestral meanings. The turning point of the Policing Joy comes when subjects of the documentary reclaim their hair with a call to action demanding that all Black girls be protected from all forms of violence through ending negative stereotypes and negative images of black hair starting with ourselves as Black people. The documentary demands that schools be held accountable for their documented treatment of Black girls. Moreover, this documentary poses possible solutions.