As I got closer, I could see that there were at least twenty people, mostly adults, but some teenagers too, and each of them was holding a sign with a different phrase on it. One read, Stop covering for the kid! and another read Our way or the highway, immigrant scum_, while a few others were even more crude and not worth mentioning. A heavyset man was standing on a stepstool, his angry voice bellowing out through a bullhorn,_ What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! He went back and forth with his minions, piercing my eardrums each time with his maddening shrill. I stood directly in front of the assembled group, waiting for a pause. When it came, I seized upon the opportunity. Ella Richardson is a teacher at Fallsworth High School and is highly regarded by her creative writing students. Her new student, Alex Patorovsky, quickly becomes an outcast in Fallsworth following a despicable incident that his peers and many of the town's adults are convinced he was responsible for. Emotions boil over in the town, and Alex becomes a pariah, putting his safety in jeopardy. Ella is forced to set aside her initial fears about Alex's character and her own childhood trauma to confront the community about their prejudices.