Tuesday, January 11, 2011

EXPOSE': LAUSD's "Schools to Prisons" Program - How it works and WHY? (Soon to be exposed in media!)

"LAUSD "Schools to Prisions":

"Pipeline to Prison":  Targeting the kids with low test scores who are driving down the LAUSD overall averages. (The schools are paid by the state based on test scores.)

What is happening to the kids -- and what the schools are doing to address this concern, is becoming a hot topic issue across the country, among parents. Here are some details.

Because schools get money based on test scores, it appears they are targeting students with low scores with truancy tickets that police are writing. for example, jeremy marks had received truancy tickets from the school police. this made it look like he is a problem. But some of the tickets were for being one minute to five minutes late -- after riding to school on MTA metro. The tickets are $250 for first offense and can go up to $400 and then $900 for multiple offenses. So then the parents are forced to pull their kids out of school, which is what the schools want, because then the kids are not dragging down the test scores. AND, they are also making the money off of these tickets from the low-income people who need the help most. When you get ticket, you have to appear in court. So you miss another day of school. And if you chose to fight the ticket, you have to miss another day of school.  PLUS, the parents have to miss work to fight the ticket...all over being one minute late.

He never did anything and was not involved in the altercation and was falsely imprisoned for eight months for attempted lynching on an officer and attempting to cause a riot. Th DA is trying to plea bargain it down, but Jeremy will not. So if/when Jeremy wins the case, he will have a huge lawsuit. There were complaints filed about these school police BEFORE a student was beaten six days later for smoking a cigarette. But Jeremy was videotaping it, so Jeremy was scooped up. The person who was smoking was let out the next day. But Jeremy was imprisoned for eight months for doing nothing but videotaping a fellow student being beaten by the police. The video showing this will be seen in court during a trial. The video will show the student who was beaten, being restrained by the officer. BUT NOT JEREMY! HE IS NOT BEING RESTRAINED. You will see Jeremy in the background of the video, filming his own video. There will be a trial, but first there was a bail redction hearing but the DA's office wasn't prepared, so it got postponed till Jan 17th or 18th (will have to check exact date). And the trial is continued indefinitely.  (So NOW the school-aged, 18 year old (adult) teen-ager has to try to concentrate and study in school...WITH A DISTRICT ATTORNEY TRIAL HANGING OVER HIS HEAD.

The school gets a lot of money -- AND, the prisons get THREE TIMES the money that the schools do, per kid. In the eight months he was in jail, he got NO education. So he cost the state $33,000 instead of $11,000 for ZERO EDUCATION!

BECAUSE there is more money in the PRISONS than in EDUCATION!

So push the kids with low test scores into prison -- YOU CAN RAISE THE TEST SCORES...AND MORE MONEY CAN BE MADE, PER KID, BY HAVING THEM IN PRISON (at three times the expense, per kid.) A WIN-WIN, I think we can all agree!

20 organizations are coming together to demand time with the school board and reforming the "Schools to Prisons" program.