<P> It is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell who wrote the story based on Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California . The movie is also based on the DC program called City at Peace . The title is a play on the term "Freedom Riders", referring to the multiracial civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961 . </P> <P> The idea for the film came from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell for the ABC News program Primetime Live . Durning served as co-executive producer of the film . The film was dedicated to the memory of Armand Jones, who was killed after wrapping up Freedom Writers . He was 18 and was shot to death in Anaheim, California after a confrontation with a man who robbed Jones of a necklace in a Denny's restaurant . </P> <P> Woodrow Wilson Classical High School is a formerly high - achieving school which has encountered some difficulties bearing its new racial integration plan . In 1994, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, Erin Gruwell, an enthusiastic young teacher starts at the school . Her enthusiasm is challenged when she finds her class is composed of "at - risk" students, the "untouchables," and not the eager - for - college students she expected . Her students self - segregate into racial groups within the classroom . This causes problems, as a gang fight between Hispanic and African - American students break out and, consequently, most of her students began to stop attending class . Not only is Gruwell challenged with gaining her students' trust on personal and academic levels, but she must do so with very little support from her professional peers and district higher - ups . For example, her department head refuses to provide Gruwell with an adequate number of books for her class because she insists they will get damaged and lost . Instead, she suggests that Gruwell focuses on instilling concepts of discipline and obedience in her classroom . </P> <P> Two students, Eva (April Lee Hernández), a Mexican - American girl and narrator for much of the film, and Sindy (Jaclyn Ngan), a Cambodian refugee, frequent the same convenience store . One night, Grant Rice (Armand Jones), an African - American student at Woodrow Wilson, frustrated at losing an arcade game, demands a refund from the store owner . As Grant storms out of the store, Eva's boyfriend, Paco (as retaliation for losing a fight against Grant that took place earlier during a gang fight at Woodrow Wilson), attempts a drive - by shooting to kill Grant, but misses accidentally killing Sindy's boyfriend . As a witness, Eva must testify at court; she intends to guard "her own" in her testimony . </P>

When does the movie freedom writers take place