In this essay, we explore the notion of scholè as suspension, which is central to Masschelein and Simons’ (2013) work on the publicness of school. We address the position that scholè as suspension can be conceptualised as non-political. We begin by discussing Masschelein and Simons’ notion and contrast it with the understanding of suspension put forward in Rousseau’s Émile. This alternative account challenges the centrality of schools in enabling suspension and shows that embracing the school as the pre-eminent site of the scholè can run the risk of perpetuating injustice. Then, through childist and decolonial perspectives on schooling (Abebe, 2023;Abebe, Biswas, 2021), we show how public schooling can hinder other ways of living and being rather than promoting free-time from the tyranny of (capitalist) society and the unequal family order. Prolonging this childist decolonial approach, we introduce Harney and Moten’s (2013) notion of black study. By working with the notion of black study, we contest and expand the notion of scholè by exploring its political gesture. In contrast to the classroom as a moment of free-time from society, we insist on the classroom as a contested space (Ludlow, 2004), where educational suspension still happens/can happen.