Freedom Writers is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey and Mario.

Plot

In 1994 in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell has been accepted to teach English for at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High Schoola once highly acclaimed school that has declined since voluntary integration had been enforced and where racial tension has increased since the Los Angeles riots two years before. Erin struggles to form a connection with her students and observes numerous fights between some of them, who are in rival gangs. She attempts to instill respect, but they ignore her and continue to be disruptive in class. She notices on her lunch break that the school is divided into racial groups. A few days after becoming a teacher at Wilson, almost the entire school is involved in a massive brawl, when a Hispanic student, Eva Benitez lets her boyfriend Paco into the school with his fellow gang members. The alarm bell rings and screams are heard. Several students charge out and fight on the school grounds. Erin goes home upset and distraught as she had witnessed another Latin American student bring a gun to school.