School to Prison Pipeline

The school to prison pipeline is dramatized within the plot of the novel. Quan starts the story as an innocent, kind, and intelligent boy. He loves his family, his teachers, and his library. His favorite thing in the world is hanging out at his dad’s house and watching Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, his whole world comes crushing down when the police barge into his home, grab his father, and take him to jail for the next 25 years, an event that foreshadows Quan’s own eventual arrest. Quan is traumatized by the sudden loss, and the fact that his mother is impoverished and in a domestically abusive relationship only makes things harder for Quan.

Once Quan’s father is arrested and imprisoned, the whole world starts to expect Quan to follow in his footsteps and end up in...