Students in Illinois can be fined up to $750 by the police for non-criminal, school-based behaviors, requiring them to attend local administrative hearings that lack any due process protections. This process is called ‘municipal ticketing.’

Marla Baker’s daughter, Amara Harris, was having a normal day at school until she was accused of stealing another student’s AirPods in 2019. Despite Amara explaining to school administrators that the incident was a simple misunderstanding, the school’s resource officer still issued her a municipal ticket accompanied with a fine. Marla, a Naperville resident and staunch advocate for her daughter’s rights, decided to fight the ticket with Amara instead of letting her daughter be punished for something she didn’t do.

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Have you, your student, or your family been impacted by unjust or discriminatory discipline practices? Do you have a story similar to that of Marla and Amara? Whatever your story looks like, we want to hear from you.

Stand Illinois is on a mission to curb the use of punitive discipline practices to address non-criminal, school-based behaviors, and we need to hear from you in order to make that happen.

Have you, your student, or your family been impacted by unfair punitive discipline practices that could have been addressed with a more restorative approach? Do you have a story similar to that of Marla Baker and Amara Harris? Whatever your story looks like, we want to hear from you.

Thousands of families have a story to tell but few have the opportunity to share it. We want to uplift your experiences as a first step to eliminating it all together. Putting a face and a name to these tickets is crucial in highlighting the detrimental impact they have on Illinois students and families.

Help us show that punitive discipline is not the answer to addressing non-criminal student behaviors.