ProPublicaAug 10, 2023

Years After Being Ticketed at School for a Theft She Said Never Happened, Former Student Prevails in Court
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Amara Harris declined plea deals and ultimately won a legal fight that dates back to 2019.

#Illinois #CriminalJustice #Naperville #Airpods #Schools #Students #Police #Crime #Courts #Teachers #News #Verdict #Teens #Parents

https://www.propublica.org/article/school-ticketing-naperville-illinois-airpods-amara-harris-verdict?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Years After Being Ticketed at School for a Theft She Said Never Happened, Former Student Prevails in Court

Amara Harris declined plea deals and ultimately won a legal fight that dates back to 2019. Now she and her attorneys want to push for statewide reforms.

ProPublica
Show threadProPublica

Our coverage of Amara's years-long case grew out of our Price Kids Pay series investigating how some Illinois high schools use police to discipline students.

Read more here:
https://www.propublica.org/series/the-price-kids-pay

The Price Kids Pay

Illinois law bans schools from fining students. But police routinely issue tickets to children for minor misbehavior at school, burdening families with financial penalties.

ProPublica
Aug 10, 2023 at 5:56pmWeb
Show threadgarpuAug 11, 2023
@ProPublica Out of curiosity, were there numbers for the other high school in Community District 300? Dundee-Crown is the one cited with the highest number of truancy tickets, but there's another H. D. Jacobs high school. (Wouldn't surprise me if there weren't many. Rich kids always got a pass for things we (at DCHS) were punished for.)
Show threadJared RuteckiAug 11, 2023
@garpu @ProPublica It’s up on the database - 124 tix https://projects.propublica.org/illinois-school-police-tickets-fines
Do Police Give Students Tickets in Your Illinois School District?

Do police in your Illinois school district give students tickets for truancy, vaping, fighting or other violations of local ordinances? Search our interactive database to find out.

ProPublica
Show threadAda Ґ.Aug 12, 2023

@JaredRutecki @garpu @ProPublica

When you consider the number of HS’s involved those numbers get more interesting.
Huntley 158 only has one, massive, HS. In contrast to D300 which has about 2.5x the enrollment of Huntley, over 4+ schools (looks like the fifth is special).
How much is this affected by the sheer size of a school?

Seeing these summary # as a percent of student enrollment would be more insightful I think?

Show threadAda Ґ.Aug 12, 2023

@JaredRutecki @garpu @ProPublica

Side note, over spring break this past year, DCHS had major plumbing issues. Had to have everything augered out - the number of iPhones and vape cartridges being flushed & subsequently stuck was astounding. Mentioned because the tickets being issued are so often for vapes/e-cigs…

Show threadgarpuAug 12, 2023
@adrcatgul @JaredRutecki @ProPublica I graduated from DCHS in '93, and it was very clear, though, that there was a different standard for the poor kids, as opposed to the rich kids. I mean, I was a straight-A student and had my locker tossed by cops twice. My experience wasn't an anomaly, either.
Show threadAda Ґ.Aug 13, 2023

@garpu @JaredRutecki @ProPublica

I’ve lived in the area for a little over a decade and it certainly doesn’t seem to have changed much. The disparities are certainly apparent.

Show threadgarpuAug 13, 2023

@adrcatgul That's really sad. :( (And, for the record, I was squeaky-clean, honors student, orchestra nerd...)

Have some pizza at Village Pizza for me! :)

Show threadMushifootAug 16, 2023
@ProPublica Abolish SROs.