After weeks of planning my English teacher Mr. Danziger and his lovely wife who I call Ms. Amy started a club at Venice High School.

This club isn't an ordinary club about robotics, math, religion or sea creatures.

It's about prison.

P.O.P.S. stands for Pain of the Prison System.

The first meeting was held in early February 2013. My brother Ariel accompanied me to the club which meets at lunch in Room 120. We entered the classroom, grabbed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a cup of lemonade and chocolate brownies. Not to mention Ms. Amy makes the best deep chocolate brownies. Then we sat in a circle and waited for more students to arrive.

There were at least 15 students who showed up, probably more, and what happened over the next 25 minutes was not what I could have ever anticipated.

I really thought I was alone when it came to prison.

My brother and I who are usually quiet people became surprisingly open and talkative. Ariel immediately began pouring out his emotions. He couldn't stop. I followed.

The best thing was that everyone actually listened. And almost everyone spoke openly about why they were there. Not everyone was there because of they were directly affected by prison, a few just came for the food, which was fine because they still listened and understood some of what we felt when they heard our stories. Hearing my schoolmates' stories that first day made me realize I had taken too much of time with my dad for granted when he was a free man.

P.O.P.S. which meets every Wednesday at lunch helped me break out of my shell. There I gained the confidence to try out for the drill team. The club also helped me bring up all of my grades.

P.O.P.S. released the shame I felt about my relationship to prison.

P.O.P.S. threw together students who would never have noticed each other on campus and in that circle we acknowledged each other's talent in writing poems, essays, stories and in music. These meetings brightened every Wednesday.

Over the next few months many speakers came to visit P.O.P.S. Some of their stories made us cry or made us angry about what goes on inside prisons. Not every speaker expressed shame but some regretted decisions they made in their pasts. It was also obvious that in one way or another, in the long run, their prison experience made them better people. Now all of them worked twice as hard as they worked before just to get by.

Some of these speakers suffered great losses like the loss of a mother, being expelled from every school in the county, racking up huge legal bills, becoming homeless and having years of their lives wasted.

One speaker explained how her life became so difficult that she turned to drugs and alcohol and her sister attempted suicide multiple times. Yet now she and her sisters have become successful businesswomen and turned their loss and sadness into a non-profit organization that helps women who have been victims of violence.

I thank P.O.P.S. for pushing me in the right direction mentally and emotionally. For allowing me to make long-lasting friendships and for providing me with unforgettable memories. For filling me up on brownies and lemonade every Wednesday. For listening to my stories and accepting my past.

Most of all I'm thankful for all that I've learned through every experience in Room 120 at lunch. And hopefully next year the club will again be fun and life-changing as it has been this year.

It's an honestly a great club and every school should have a P.O.P.S. club.

Alondra Magallanes

May 31, 2013