In the fall of 2019, when Amara Harris was a junior at Naperville North High School, she was accused of stealing a classmate’s Airpods. She says she was looking for hers, and grabbed the wrong pair by accident, before realizing the mistake and returning them to the dean.
Still, Harris was ticketed by school police, which included a fine of up to $500. Harris and her mother, Marla Baker, decided to fight the ticket. It took years but in 2023, a jury found her innocent.
“The four-and-a-half-year process was very, very hard on us, emotionally, physically, mentally, financially," said Baker. "Just to be holding your breath for four and a half years not knowing how her future would look.”
Her mom says Amara has had trouble opening up and trusting people since then. She had never been in trouble before. She was worried if having the ticket on her record would hurt her ability to get scholarships or her license to become a veterinarian.
“As a mom," said Baker, "there's nothing I could do to give those four and a half years back to her. There's nothing. She's not the same. She's changed. It changed the trajectory of her emotions and her mental state. It really did.”
They also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Naperville.
Illinois lawmakers just introduced legislation to ban school-based ticketing. It’s where students receive fines for city ordinance violations for in-school behavior.
But the effort to stop school-based policing in Illinois isn’t new. In 2022, then-state superintendent Carmen Ayala asked schools to stop working with police to fine students. Tony Sanders, the current state superintendent, also supports legislation to end ticketing.
But, at some schools, the practice hasn’t stopped. And Harris’ school district isn’t the only one where students are ticketed. Last year, two organizations filed a federal civil rights complaint against Rockford Public Schools, alleging discriminatory discipline practices -- including their use of school-based ticketing.
Over the past two full school years, school police wrote Rockford students more than 250 city ordinance violation tickets for in-school behavior. That adds up to $58,329 worth of fines.
Nicholas Meyer is the city of Rockford’s former legal director. He oversaw code violation hearings.
“That small fine can be an effective tool to deter behavior," he said. "I do believe that."
At districts like RPS, students caught with marijuana don't just get a detention or suspension from the school, they also receive a ticket. Most of the citations were for “possession of less than 30 grams of cannabis,” but others were for trespassing and some students who got in fights received “breach of peace” tickets.
The tickets usually cost around $150 but can be as high as $750. To contest it, they have to show up at a code meeting at city hall on a Wednesday during the school day.
Families generally have 30 days to pay the fine. If they don’t, Meyer says they don’t hound families for the money. But those fees can skyrocket if they’re sent to a collection agency. Documents obtained by WNIJ say that many of the tickets were sent to collections, but Meyer says they never were.
“No cases were ever sent to collections," he said. "That would have gone through our finance department. We have no record of that. So, it was just a sort of quirk in the system. But we have not and will not be sending cases to collections.”
He says that nearly $60,000 is more than he expected, but since they don’t send families to collections, not every ticket gets paid.
Only two tickets have been issued to students this school year, both of which are still pending. The city’s legal department says they’re working on an agreement with the school district to stop school-based ticketing.
RPS says there are certain offenses, like drug possession, that they’re legally mandated to notify the police about. They say it’s not the schools writing the ticket, it’s the police -- even if those police officers are contracted with the district.
Amy Galvin is with the education advocacy group Stand for Children. She says, even if that’s true, there are plenty of communities where students aren’t ticketed.
“In our research and our outreach," she said, "we have found that those schools are functioning perfectly well."
An RPS spokesperson says they changed their student code of conduct to reduce the number of instances that require police contact.
State representative LaShawn Ford just introduced the bill to stop school-based ticketing. His bill changes the Illinois school code to ban school personnel, including school police, from issuing tickets for municipal code violations. Previously, the law just said students couldn’t be given monetary fines as a disciplinary consequence.
Ford says he understands that schools are obligated to contact police about certain offenses, but that there are limits.
“When you catch young people with a vape pen," he said, "I don't know if police need to be involved in that, I mean, you could simply take it and that'd be it."
Galvin with Stand for Children says schools have better options to correct misbehavior, and that ticketing just punishes families.
“Our argument," said Galvin, "is that schools are unique environments for youth to learn and to basically have better supports to address poor behavior and responses to trauma."
She says they could invest in restorative practices, or they could have students do community service for ordinance violations.
Back in Naperville, Amara’s mom’s advocacy now extends far beyond just her daughter. Marla has been meeting with school administrators around the state to try to end school-based ticketing in Illinois.
She says that no family should have to go through the stress that hers did, and that she hopes Rep. Ford’s legislation can make sure of that.
