This paper stresses the need to place case studies in the sociology of education in a broader social context. The analysis of the activities of the disciplinary board at an at-risk secondary school in France makes it possible to account for only the social construction of deviance at school, but also the social pressures schools face (local educational market, middle-class parents, etc.). This paper argues that disciplinary boards reveal micro-practices of social reproduction (Ball, 2003) within the school. These micro-practices of social reproduction should be investigated.