Jorge Lopez, social activist in East Los Angeles and world history teacher at Roosevelt High School, recently got involved with our "No to Pre-Prisons" Campaign. After feeling frustrated and angry at the increased ticketing of his students he began referring his students to us for legal services and support. Questioning the real intentions about the "truancy" sweeps at his school he writes in his blog: "I believe that if the Mayor had no interest in ticketing our students, there would not be one of his point persons overseeing the operation, and LAPD...."

The San Fernando Valley Sun has been raising a public debate between us, the principal of Cleveland High, and LA School Police Dept Interim Chief Bowman. They've already written 3 pieces in a series. We need you to send letters to the editors because...

Jazmin Martinez, a senior at Manual Arts High School, blogs about being searched in a round-up with an auditorium full of students for being tardy. She writes about the need to end the racialization of the "war on drugs" by creating forms of prevention, intervention and ultimately decriminalizing drug usage in her blog, Prevention Beyond Just "Say No".

After weeks of nervous speculation, a victory against a court system that fails time and time again to convict and sentence police officers for murder. For Black people in particular, this perpetual lack of legal re-dress for one of the oldest problems impacting our community has created deeply entrenched pain, fear and anger. No matter the social status, economic class or skin tone, almost every Black person in America has experienced a nervous moment whenever a cop came near. This is not because we are a community of cowards. rather it is because...

Contrary to idea of America in the age of colorblindness, civil rights advocate and law professor Michelle Alexander argues, "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."  Her new book is The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Please join Community Rights in a booksigning and discussion with her this week.

Just yesterday, CNN ran a top story in their legal news section that features our Community Rights work against truancy tickets and pre-prison conditions in schools: "But one thing is sure: Alexa's case isn't the first. At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in..."

The first pre-trial hearing for Johannes Mehserle - the Ex-BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Years Day 2009 - brought out a tapestry of emotion and activity. The Foltz Criminal Justice Center was abuzz with scores of brave protestors, media representatives, and agents of the legal system all taking part in the early morning rush.
It was an amazing scene considering that the hearing itself was rather basic and bland. The biggest developments of the day included...

The report looks at how punitive discipline and testing policies and practices have combined to turn many schools into hostile and alienating environments that drive youth out of school and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems. 
We highly encourage our members and supporters to read this important
document.  

In actions at Manual Arts, Westchester, and Cleveland High Schools,  LAUSD students from our Community Rights Campaign weathered the rain to launch a new initiative for greater accountability from the Los Angeles School Police Department. 
They reached out to students, teachers and community members to support CRC's 5 new policy recommendations for creating new policies and procedures that restrict the use of force and role of police in our schools to protect the civil/human rights of all.

The Community Rights Campaign in collaboration with the Los Angeles Chapter of Dignity in Schools Campaign has released a policy paper: Police in LAUSD Schools: The Need for Accountability and Alternatives. The report calls attention to the pervasive problem of police misconduct in the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD), and calls for measures to protect the civil and educational rights of the students and families of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).