Pre-Prison Diaries: October 13, 2009

Taking the podium to speak to a crowd of students

"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!

By Ashley Franklin: Organizer-in-Training

Every week I go out and organize outside high schools, on the buses, on street corners. I want to share one story I recently heard from a recent graduate of Manual Arts High School: 

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. I am only 19 and my job requires that I arrive everyday at a set time so that I can be chosen to work on a construction project. If I do not arrive on time, I do not get the job. I am helping my mom out financially which is why I need to work. In theory, public transportation should get me to work on time, but it does not and that is why I decided to drive without a license. But then I was pulled over by the police and had to pay a major fine. So now I am back on the bus, but using the bus to commute to work is not working out for me. There are many times that the bus is late and I miss out on an opportunity to work all because of this truancy ticket. 

This story struck me because of the long term harmful effects of using tickets as a "discipline" tool.  Indeed, students must be accountable for their actions but I believe that relying on the police as a disciplinary tool is LAUSD not being accountable to their students. There truancy are not only an expensive price tag for very low-income parents but are also leading to an increased number of youth getting caught up in the system. Knowing that Black and Brown folk make up the majority of the prison population, these tickets are only continuing this cycle. As a Black woman and a product of a Central LA school, I have seen families and whole communities torn apart by the criminal justice system.  I am more and more clear that these seemingly harmless tickets are just another way to entangle my community in this devastating system where ultimately they vanish behind bars.

Recently,we prevented the expansion of LA's daytime curfew law [1] which would have allowed police to ticket on school grounds for "truancy." We must continue to build the momentum from this to now win a moratorium on ticketing. On October 20th, Community Rights organizers will be presenting at the LAUSD Board and we need your help...click here to learn how you can help [2]!  

Read more Pre-Prison Diaries :

Next entry: A Black Mother Takes Action to Challenge a “guilty” verdict on a Truancy Ticket | Pre-Prison Diaries: October 25, 2009 [3]