Tell Your Story with Pre-Prison Diaries
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
by Manuel Criollo on Friday, December 16, 2011
Do you ever feel like your school or your child's school is a pre-prison?
Have you or your child ever received a truancy ticket or any other kind of ticket at school?
Have you experienced or witnessed abuse, intimidation or excessive force by school police?
What do you see or experience at your school that makes you feel like its a "pre-prison?
Please Share Your Stories with Pre-Prison Diaries!
|
Voices From the Students "My friend got into a confrontation with someone. They weren't fighting though, just arguing verbally. The school police officer came over and sprayed mace in his face! He then handcuffed him and shoved him to the ground. This made me upset because he was already sprayed and couldn't resist and yet he got thrown to the ground." -Black female, 12th grade, Westchester High School
|
"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 in schools and surrounding communities.
We hope this space can be one where we collect important stories to help the "No to Pre-Prison" campaign but also where you can learn from each other, give thoughts, advice, and ideas. So often, we are taught to feel shame when experiences such as tickets and police abuse occur. On the contrary, we say the shame should be on the system for allowing such "pre-prison" conditions and civil rights violations to occur!
You may submit a "pre-prison" diary entry on anything that you feel is a "pre-prison" experience in your school or community. We encourage you to also comment on each other's entries, being respectful of the different experiences people may have.
To submit an entry all you have to do is scroll down to the bottom and write it into the "add comment" section. Then, hit submit!
Check out our Most Recent Pre-Prison Diary:
What the Community Rights Campaign Means to Me: "What I have learned here is this: social struggles go beyond challenging the ubiquity of violence in our society. It is, to a very high degree, about doing it alongside comrades that represent a collective conscious. I commute to The Center because I like surrounding myself with impacting and knowledgeable individuals and because it is hard to realize a mindset without first finding like-minded individuals."
Check Out Past Pre-Prison Diary Entries!
November 11, 2009: California's future of education cuts and expanding prisons: "The Pre-Prisoning of Black and Brown students doesn't stop when your high school education has ended. The push out and tracking of young Black and Brown students also occurs at the university and college levels..."
October 25, 2009: A Black Mother Takes Action to Challenge a "Guilty" Verdict on a Truancy Ticket: "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..."
October 13, 2009: Truancy Tickets Aftermath: "I received a truancy ticket when I was in 10th grade in high school. I never went to court to deal with it because I knew my mother could not afford it. Little did I know, ignoring the ticket was a bad idea because the courts suspended my license until I turn 21..."
Comments
On April 8th, 2011 Anonymous (not verified) said:
Hey i posted the comment on march 17th here about the cop that said our tattoos were gay which was a while back, Now im back AGAIN with another story AND two MORE tickets. Today i got a ticket at 8:28AM, The school police officer drove me from school to a few cities down to a detention center without telling me she was taking me there, i ask her how will i get back to my school or home because my parents are at work until late and cant pick me up, her response was, "You have money dont you take the bus" i tell her i have no idea where we are and i dont know how to take the bus and she ignores it. After all that trouble she STILL gives me a ticket and makes me stay at the detention center all day. After staying all day i ask the teachers there how do i get home and they try to help but they are not sure how i should go. So i walk out of the center and having no idea where im at i try to make my way home, WALKING thanks to nice people i found my way home after walking 3 hours and now i found out that the center was about 8 miles from my home. BS
On March 17th, 2011 Anonymous (not verified) said:
I got a ticket today for ditching. The cop arrested us and then took us back to school. While in the car he was talking about how our tattoos were gay and stuff which i thought was unnecessary. Im in the 12th grade and through my years in highschool I think that the police, teachers, or any other staff of the school should have NO right to force us to stay in school or even worse give us a $175 ticket for not going. Who are they to fine students or parents for not going to school? That should be the students choice and if he/she doesnt want to go then their consequence would be not passing a class or not graduating, but its their choice NOT a $175 ticket. Also if they are forcing us to be in school why cant we wear whatever hats we want, use whatever electronics we want, or leave school and EAT what we want and then come back? And to add to that they are starting to send police dogs to search for drugs and stuff. Whats happened to our schools? Schools not a place to learn anymore, Its more of a PRISON.
On March 21st, 2011 Kendra Williby said:
Thank you for sharing your experience. What you revealed in your story is exactly our concern - students are not only receiving $250 tickets (the total with court fees) but also are often being wrongfully profiled and treated as criminals (with the use of handcuffs and aggressive police interrogation/intimidation/bullying to coerce information out of students to often further incriminate them) - ultimately making our schools feel more like "pre-prisons". We would like to support you through your court process with the knowledge and information we have around LAMC 45.05 citations. Please contact me at the office: 213-387-2800.
On November 13th, 2009 Alex (not verified) said:
Going out with the community rights campaign and passing out flier's getting so pumped what enlightened me and what makes me want to keep on following this is the story's that you hear for kids just like you except there what two years younger and already being harassed i think cops have no right at what they do there should be a barrier and a thing that only gives cops so much power in a school zone some cops even try to profile the same person . there just bullies and sometimes they don't even help at all .
“We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think a”-J.Williams
Add comment
Related Categories
-
Projects
The police are doing what they are supposed to. If you didn't want to get ticketed or didn't want to be put into the gang database, you shouldn't have ditched school or be in a dam gang. Everyone who has a ticket deserves it because it was their fault and not anyone else's. If you are afraid of the consequences then don't do it, it is just that simple. Most of the comments here are saying oh, I am so scared and stuff, well why did you do it in the first place if you knew you were doing something wrong.