Introduction
Several years ago, a few blocks from my school, in the middle of a mile-long stretch with no crosswalks, Thomas, my student, received a ticket for jaywalking on his way to school. He was twenty, fighting hard to graduate from high school while being a father to two children. He had been in and out of Tulsa’s juvenile and adult justice systems and was always working odd jobs to pay off his accumulated fines. The officers who ticketed him knew him by name and were friendly. Assumedly they also knew that he was already trying to pay his way out from under the weight of fines and away from the courts as he neared graduation. Later that month in a wealthy Tulsa neighborhood, another high school student, driving an expensive car in the middle of the night without the owner’s permission, crashed into a yard taking out landscaping, a wrought iron and stone fence, and a large fountain. He totaled the car. He was a white upper-class private school student who received nothing but a warning. These two situations represent extremes, but my students see variations play out on a regular basis. They also witness and live what happens as the consequences—or lack thereof—of these situations play out exponentially, or not at all, over time. Thomas’s story hits on the key problem that this unit addresses: nationally and in Oklahoma, juvenile justice practices are not grounded in research and best practices, nor are they equitable. While Tulsa County is relatively progressive, at each of these levels we need to make a lot of progress, and students have a voice in doing just that.
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