Pre-Prison Diaries: October 25, 2009

Barbara Lott-Holland Speaking at the Media Launch of the Community Rights Campaign

"Pre-Prison Diaries" is a series from the Community Rights Campaign in which organizers, students and parents share stories and observations about truancy tickets, police in schools, zero tolerance, and other "pre-prison" conditions and experiences. We welcome your comments and your own "pre-prison" diary entries...please submit below!

A few weeks ago we received a call from a mother in Palmdale about a truancy ticket her son has received.

She told me the story:

"My son received a truancy ticket for staying home from school. But I think they ticketed him unfairly. You see, I had given him permission to stay home! He wasn't feeling well, so I let him stay home. The school called to see where he was. After speaking with him, they called me at work and I told them 'yes, I know he is home.' I didn't think anything of it until two days later he was handed a truancy citation at school!!! Can you believe that?!"

She then went on to tell me that she had looked up the municipal code that was listed on the ticket and saw that it specified in a "public place."

Patricia said with frustration and anger:

"Since when is our home a public place? This ticket cannot be right! When I went to court this was exactly what I told the judge. But she got upset, I guess because I was saying my son was "not guilty." It was really humiliating-they make you feel so little and unimportant and like you don't have rights to contest these tickets."

She demanded a separate trial for her son.

When she went back to court for the trial, her son was found "guilty" and told to pay the full amount of $225. Patricia called us the same day to ask if we could help her win a rehearing.

"My son is only 13 years old and he got a ticket for fighting for $350 and now this. I mean, this is ridiculous. I knew he was home, how can they cite him for this?! Now the police and the school district LAUSD are trying to invade and control my home. My son is a young Black boy, and I agree with what you all are saying-this is pre-prison!"

Her initiative was remarkable. She had already taken off 3 days of work to go to court with her son, had researched the law/policy on the internet and that's how she ended up calling us. Luckily, we recently teamed up with a volunteer lawyer, who wants to help people with these truancy ticket cases. This would be her first case. They worked together on the application for a rehearing-you have 10 days to ask for a rehearing and have to submit it in person to the same court that your first meeting occurred. In the application, Patricia also asked for the case to be dismissed. Shortly after we got notice that the request for a rehearing had been denied. Patricia and the lawyer began to discuss whether to appeal when we suddenly got word that the head judge had dismissed the case!

I am very proud of this mother who had the courage and the will to say enough is enough. So many times we are overwhelmed with the many barriers that are placed before us as working families that we feel compelled to just pay the ticket and be done with it. Our youth need our help. They cannot fight a system bent on locking them up by themselves.

In our current state where more and more laws are being created to incarcerate predominately Black and Brown people, I see this curfew law as an extension of the "tough on crime" and "broken windows" policies that are responsible for 2.3 million people in US prisons.

As a mother myself I understand not having enough time. I was fortunate enough that my children did not get caught up in the criminal legal system, but now I have grandchildren that are part of LAUSD and because these unjust laws have expanded their chances of being targeted by these policies have doubled.

I have seen the faces of students sitting on the sidewalk with their heads hanging down, hoping no one they know, especially their parents, would see them. When I first saw this it never entered my mind that they were being held and ticketed for being late to school or even skipping school altogether, they are not criminals. I am in the fight to first place a moratorium on the ticketing of our students and ultimately reverse the code altogether and help our students maintain their dignity. Our schools should be a place of learning not a hostile environment that students are afraid to enter. LAUSD stop policing and get back to teaching.

We need alternatives that address the reasons students are late for school. Peer counselors and stress management-yes stress management. Our youth have many stress factors in their lives, from what to wear to fit in, to how to deal with the fact their parents are no longer together.

Why not have tutoring sessions for those that have problems keeping up, or just needs someone to take the time to explain things in a way they can understand?

Truancy and tardiness should not be treated as crimes, while student accountability must be a part of the program, accountability must be the responsibility of the school and not the police court or the legal system.

When a student is in trouble a ticket only complicates the issue. If they find themselves unable to make it to school on time in many cases the student would rather skip that class, not come at all, or even worse drop out completely due to the added financial and emotional burdens that tickets and law enforcement create.

Recently, we prevented the expansion of LA's daytime curfew law which would have allowed police to ticket on school grounds for "truancy." Our next Community Rights Campaign, where we will discuss and strategize the next steps in ending truancy and tardy tickets, is November 7th at 11am....click here to learn more details!

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