Matthew was a little boy who attended Mellview Elementary School. He had plenty friends, loved to play basketball, and enjoyed learning science!

Although Matthew enjoyed all of these fun activities, he seemed to have been struggling in his day to day life lately. 

See, Matthew only had a mother and no father present in his life. He was different from other kids. 

Matthew loved his mom, but she wasn't doing a very good job of taking care of him. Some nights Matthew didn't shower or even eat because his mom was always out late. 

What Matthew's mom does to him makes him very upset and sometimes he even acts out because of it. He doesn't mean to get in trouble, but he feels that no one else understands him.

One day after a really long night of listening to his mother and her boyfriend fight, Matthew went to school in a very grumpy mood.

While at school after recess, Matthew's teacher, Mrs. Lyles asked all of the students to get in a straight line, but Matthew decided to not listen. Instead, he continued to mess around and make his classmates laugh.

Mrs. Lyles was very unhappy about this and sent Matthew to the principle's office.

This was Matthew's fifth visit to the principle's office in the last month. He had been making really bad decisions while at school, but the teacher never asked about his life or why he would act like this. This made Matthew feel like his teacher didn't really care about him. 

Matthew also felt like Mr. Tuttle, the principle, didn't care about him either. Every time he was made to go to his office, he would  be very strict with him and give Matthew really harsh punishments like long after school detentions and suspensions.

When Matthew got to Mr. Tuttle's office, he was very dissapointed in him. Mr. Tuttle told Matthew that he was tired of dealing with his bad habits and was finally done with his foolish behavior.

Matthew began to cry as Mr. Tuttle told him he was no longer going to be able to come back to school.

Matthew begged and pleaded to have Mr. Tuttle give him another chance. He didn't want to leave behind all his friends and favorite activities he got to do while in school.

Matthew wouldn't stop crying, but Mr. Tuttle's decision was final. He didn't understand why Mr. Tuttle couldn't help him in his situation. Instead, he punished him and Matthew felt alone in it all. 

The next school Matthew was enrolled to, the same things seemed to happen. He wasn't being paid attention to at home and therefore it affected the way he acted at school, yet no one seemed to care. 

By the time Matthew reached Junior High School, he tried opening up to one of his trusted teachers about what he was going through at home and how he felt the need to do better. He wanted to finally do good in school and make smarter decisions.

Unfortunately, Matthew's teacher wasn't very supportive. His teacher told him that if he really wanted to make a difference in his life that he would stop making excuses, but it was hard trying to be a good student and having no one in your corner.  

Matthew felt hopeless. He no longer wanted to try in school because no one truly cared how his life would end up. He had given up.

For the next few years Matthew spent his life in and out of many different schools, not having a support system in any of them. He no longer cared how he did in school and eventually fell in with the wrong crowd.

One day in his junior year of high school, Matthew decided to skip school with his friends. Him and his friends had intended to create trouble while not in school, and they eventually did.

Walking down the street Matthew and his friends decided to steal from a convenience store nearby. After they had walked in, the store clerk caught them and called the police.

After the police showed up Matthew and his friends were arrested for stealing. This is when he realized that he needed to finally make a change in his life.

As a 17 year-old who had failed to stay going in school and was now in jail, Matthew wanted more for his life. He wanted to do better. He wanted a future that didn't end up with him sitting behind a jail cell.

See, Matthew had a life that was hard and being a little black boy in the American school system didn't make it any better. As a minority child in a system that wasn't necessarily made for them, Matthew was given an even harder time in school; a place where he was supposed to feel safe.