Freedom Writers 🎥 2007 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In 1994, in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell has been hired to teach Freshman English for at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High School, a formerly prestigious 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.

The second day of school, much of the student body is involved in a massive brawl when one of Erin’s Hispanic students Eva Benitez lets her boyfriend Paco onto the campus with their fellow gang members. Erin goes home upset and distraught as she had witnessed another one of her Hispanic students Alejandro Santiago bring a gun to school. One night, Eva goes into a convenience store while Paco and two other friends stay in the car. Her classmate and rival Sindy Ngor, who is a Cambodian refugee, her boyfriend, and another friend also enter the store. African American student Grant Rice, frustrated about losing an arcade game, demands a refund from the store owner.

The store owner becomes angry with Grant in return and orders him to leave the store. As Grant storms out, Paco attempts to gun him down, but misses and accidentally kills Sindy’s boyfriend, while Grant flees the scene and is later arrested for the homicide. As a witness, Eva must testify in court; she intends to guard “her own” in her testimony and protect Paco. The next day at school, Erin examines a racist drawing by her student Tito and utilizes it to teach the class about the Holocaust, which everyone, except for White student Ben Samuels, has no knowledge of.

Meet the Cast