About 500 Waterville Senior High School students and 80 staff volunteered in the community Thursday as part of Day of Caring, organized by the school and United Way.
Illinois law bans schools from fining students. So local police are doing it for them, issuing thousands of tickets a year for truancy, vaping, fights and other misconduct. Children are then thrown into a legal system designed for adults.
This article was originally published on ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. The courthouse lobby echoed like a crowded school…