The feeling of voicelessness creates a sense of internalized powerlessness for students in their schooling and preparation for learning and success. The San Joaquin Valley is surrounded by farms as well as correctional institutions and service industries. Each of these industries is interconnected with students' lives, with some having family members incarcerated and others working the land or in the burgeoning prison industrial complex. Based on inequities reproduced by institutions and experienced by students, the notion of creating change seemed far removed from their schema and experience to enact change. As a result, the authors sought a way to introduce them to critical praxis as a "reflection and action directed at the structures to be transformed" (Freire 126). This was largely driven in their belief in changing conditions through nonviolence, civil discourse, and-- if necessary-- civic disobedience to change conditions. Change can unfold through models from Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta, among others. Based on a critical literacy unit in a high school classroom in the San Joaquin Valley, this article details a project on the nature of disciplinary rules and policies.