KSDK -- Taking a ride on the Choice Bus can get a teenager thinking. Its creators hope it will keep those who climb aboard in school and out of prison.
The Choice Bus made stops at L'Ouverture Middle School and Langston Middle School today in St. Louis.
View photos of the Choice Bus
The bus was created by the Mattie Stewart Foundation. Its goal is to extend the learning experience of the InsideOut documentary, scheduled to air for the first time tonight during the St. Louis Public School District's Parent Assembly meeting.
Fashioned as a half-classroom and half-prison cell, the Choice Bus is a unique learning tool to help reduce the number of kids that drop out of school by showing that incarceration is often a consequence of not staying in school.
Students watched a video of what dropping out of school can do to your life, and then stepped inside a prison cell to find out what kind of future they could have if they drop out of school and resort to a life of crime.
This is the only scheduled visit to St. Louis this school year by the Choice Bus.
The district's Parent Assembly meeting will be held at Carr Lane VPA Middle School, 1004 N. Jefferson. A holiday meal will be served at 6:00pm for guests, followed by a 6:30pm program featuring invited speakers and a 7:00pm airing of the documentary.
More than 150 parents, community members and school leaders are expected to attend the meeting to view the documentary. Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams and other officials will be available for interviews following the showing.
InsideOut was developed to help educators, administrators, parents and community leaders' fight the nation's dropout epidemic. It allows students to see firsthand the importance of the choices they make.
InsideOut was filmed behind the bars of two maximum security prisons and exposes the real story of the devastating and lasting effects of dropping out of school, told by those who live with the consequences every day: prison inmates.
KSDK