"Good morning, students. Welcome to your second period class. Please remember that you are in a learning environment and to respect your fellow student. You are asked to allow your peers the same equal opportunity to learn that you have. You are also asked not to speak or interrupt the class in any way. No food, drink, or any other contraband, as defined in the official school book of code, will be allowed on school grounds at any time. If you are found to be in violation of the code, you will be removed from the class and reprimanded for your actions. Thank you, and have a pleasant day."

The bars behind my desk clank shut with an iron fist. The hollow, droning voice crackling from the intercom finishes "welcoming" us.

Class begins.

"They're trying to build a prison for us," I think as I survey the gray brick walls surrounding the cold, steel desks.  There aren't any windows to see the outside world. No posters or pictures to decorate the stale walls. The room feels frigid and grim. I want to leave.

Four rows of four desks fill the room, each one occupied by a student. I am sitting in the back, next to the only exit. I glance at the hall monitor standing outside the doorway, looking in and watching us closely, scanning the room for the slightest sign of trouble. His eyes catch mine and he glares at me. Rigidly he points to the TV screen at the front of the room and I quickly face forward just as a video link of the professor flicks onto the screen.

"Good morning, students. Today we will learn about the US prison system. Please pay close attention, for there will be an oral test at the end of the class."

In a normal school we would, at this point, pull out our pencils and paper, but we aren't in a normal school. As per regulations, students are not allowed to carry anything but the clothes on their backs and the shoes on their feet during school hours. Following the rights movement of 2010, the rights of children under the age of 19 have completely been eliminated. This movement is the ill-famed Education Preservation and Strengthening program.

The catalyst for the EPS program first sparked when the nation-wide riots broke out in 2008. Every major city was flooded with an unstoppable force of frenzied teenagers, fed up with the strict rules and regulations placed on them in their schools. But soon enough, after the riots had reached their peak and large portions of cities were in ruins, brute military force was used to bring them down. In the wake of the riots, EPS was born. Voting was almost unanimous and the movement was passed within days. Before the new law could nestle firmly in the constitution, pamphlets and fliers and websites seeped out across the entire country.

"The Education Preservation and Strengthening program is a new law designed to ensure proper education and behavior development in all children of the United States of America. Beginning the first of the year 2010, all students ages five and older will be declared property of the state and will be entered into the program. All schools will be modified to fit the EPS code, in addition to the development of new buildings designed to employ the program to its fullest potential. Welcome to the future of education."

The teacher proceeds with his lesson. "Nearly 3 million Americans are incarcerated in the US prison system every year."

A voice from the desks emerges, "Does that number include us?"

Instantly, a small electrode from underneath the student's chair emerges from the floor and latches onto his legs. A jolt of electricity scatters through his body, numbing his muscles and causing him to slump in his seat.

"Please refrain from interrupting me while I am speaking. Thank you. Now, as I was saying..."

Another student stands up from his chair and throws a shoe at the television screen. "You're turning this school into a prison! We won't take this!"

Outside of the room, the guard bangs his baton on the bars. "Hey! Sit back down."

"Screw you! This is unconstitutional; you can't do this to us. We weren't in those goddamn riots so why should we be punished?"

The guard quickly opens the door, readies his baton and walks towards the student to silence him. Like a pack of ravenous wolves, several more students pounce on the guard before he can strike. The guard breaks free from their attack and retreats to the doorway. "Code nineteen, professor. Commence code nineteen!"

The guard slips through the doorway and slams the gate shut. He then disappears behind a large steel door that zips tight over the bars. The students stop in their tracks. Behind them, the teacher does something off camera and grins. "Good day, children."

The TV screen flicks off. Just above it, two metal grates slide open in the ceiling and black turrets drop out. A green light flickers on the front panel of each of them. Before the students realize what is happening, it is too late. The panel lights turn red. The turrets fire; one bullet for every student.

Class dismissed.