We're Pre-Med, Pre-Job, NOT Pre-Prison

On Tuesday, August 18th, with the school year less than 3 weeks away the Community Rights Campaign held a press conference, launching our "No to Pre-Prisons" Civil and Human Rights Platform.

In our platform, we call on LAUSD to:

• Decriminalize school discipline
• End "truancy and tardy tickets"
  
• Implement strict restrictions on the use of force by school police
• End any school or LASPD cooperation in putting students into the gang database
  
• Create an Equal Protection Office

At the press conference, we unveiled the grassroots research we have conducted over the past year and a half that has led us to the demands we have today. Check out the photos and excerpts from speeches, as well as the documents presented at the event!

Barbara Lott-Holland: Stop the "pre-prisoning" of High School Youth

"We are working to stop what we call the "pre-prisoning" of high school youth with such tactics as punitive tardy tickets and the abusive behavior of police officers.

The United States has more people in prison at over 2.3 million, more than any other country in the world. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population...The federal government has ordered California to release 43,000 prisoners within the next 2 years to address the inhumane conditions caused by prison overcrowding. For many years, Black and Brown students have fought the hurdles for quality education and now the bar has been raised through zero tolerance mandates, police monitoring, tardy tickets for struggling to get to school, again keep education out of their reach. Research has shown that push out, expulsion, opportunity transfers are some of the key factors that make students candidates for the prison system."

Natasha Harrell: We need to support our children, not ticket, handcuff and humiliate them

"My second oldest son, Maurice, attended Dorsey High School from 2006-2009. During this time, he received many truancy tickets, all for being late. It was in 9th grade, when he received his first one. He was late to school because the MTA bus 705 was late....We had to go to court to deal with the ticket. After dropping off my other sons at school, we stood in a long line waiting for our turn. By law, I have to be there with my child, but I am not allowed to speak when the judge is questioning him. She asked, "are you a troublemaker?" And then suspended his license for a year-for his first ticket! She then told me we would have to pay $215 - but, I must be honest, I have not paid this, because the fixed income I live on means I cannot afford it.

At his second court date, I tried to help my son by telling him not to plead guilty but the judge told me if I kept talking I would be in contempt of court. I feel so angry at this whole situation. Being in court but not being able to help your child, is humiliating and frustrating. But why are they sending our children to court in the first place? They need to be in school-not in court. And when they are late or if they are truant, we need to support and help them, not ticket, handcuff and humiliate them."

Luis Hernandez: This is not what an education should look like

"I am a proud graduate of the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, an active member of the Strategy Center's Community Rights Campaign and Summer Youth Organizing Academy. I am also a student who has received a truancy ticket.  Approximately 80% of California's prisoners do not have a high school diploma, and in many LAUSD schools, about 50 percent will drop out. Scary isn't it? Does this mean our school system is preparing our youth for prison? The platform being presented today is a critical way that LAUSD can stop the pre-prisoning of young people like myself.

I received a $250 truancy ticket on May 1st 2006, the day of the walkouts for immigrant rights. After the staff had opened its doors so me and friends could walkout of Belmont High, we were confronted by the Los Angeles School Police Department, handcuffed, patted down, and driven back to school. I wondered if I had broken the law, was walking out for exercising my first amendment right a crime?

This summer we have surveyed over 150 students... we have heard many stories of students who have been targeted by the school police--stories of excessive force by the police tackling, shoving, and macing students. This should not happen in a school-this is not what education should look like."

Read the results from our grassroots research

Slideshow from the press launch