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! 

"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 some of our Voices From the Students:

"I was chilling with my friends who are all Latino... I assume the police believe that we cannot hangout with each other unless we are fighting because one cop surrounded us and called other cops to come. They searched us all and made us take off our shoes. One of the cops said, "I bet none of you have a green card" this statement provoked my friend and made him call the cop a pig and that's why the cops arrested him."-Latino, LA High, 9th grade

"I got a truancy ticket two years ago when I was in 7th grade. I ditched school that day. It was my first time and a group of us did it together. We were in an abandoned building when the police burst in and started screaming at us. We were handcuffed, and the police kept cussing at us. Then we were all put in the police car and brought to school where we got our tickets. My parents were called. I felt so bad at disappointing them and I was so scared. I know we were wrong for ditching, but why did they cuss so much at us? I dropped my keys during the whole thing and I never went back for them ‘cause I was so scared of the police seeing me there, even if it was after school. We went to court and I was told I could pay $50 and take a Saturday class, but I lost the paper for the class so I never went. I know it's on my record now, but I just don't want to ask my mom to miss another day of work to take me to court." -Latino, 9th grade, Manual Arts High School 

"My sister and I were late for school after we decided to eat breakfast at McDonalds. When we were leaving two male police officers said that we were late for school and told us to meet them outside. Once we were outside, one police officer searched our purses and the other searched us. I was really shocked that I was being searched and I know that I could have said that I do not consent to the search but I was too afraid to tell the officers that. I still can't believe that two male officers searched us! They escorted both my sister and I to school in the police car and took us to the Dean's Office. The police officer asked for our names and then gave us tickets. I have not told my parents about these tickets because I want to have a life before I go to court, which is about a month from now... My parents cannot afford these tickets!" -Latina, 10th grade, Manual Arts High School

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..."