WXXI and PBS NewsHour's American Graduate invited people to participate in a live online chat Friday afternoon at 1:30.
The chat was part of The American Graduate project's look at juvenile justice and gang violence as it relates to the dropout crisis.
The live chat featured two people featured in the series -- Victor Rios, a former gang member and high school dropout turned sociology professor, and Richard Ross, a photographer who documents what life is like for young people in prison.
To chat was hosted on the PBS NewsHour website Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET. People also participated by tweeting questions to @NewsHourAmGrad using the hashtag #AmGrad.
Here is more information about the participants:
- Richard Ross is a photographer and professor at UC Santa Barbara. For the past five years, he has documented and interviewed juvenile delinquents as part of his"Juvenile In Justice" project. The NewsHour report featuring Ross is scheduled to air on Thursday's NewsHour broadcast
- Victor Rios, is a former gang member who grew up in Oakland, Calif. He is now a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara studying juvenile criminal justice and gang life for young people. He is also the author of "Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys."