Rescued from the Mud

The book is about four high school teenagers who are called misfits, left-outs, and losers by their peers because of their defiant behavior toward teachers and administrators at their high school. The first teen, a native American, is a drug user whose father is a drug addict and petty thief. The second teen, who is Jewish, has been in and out of the detention center for a series of house burglaries. His father is unemployed, and his mother died from AIDS. The third teen, a Puerto Rican, drinks alcohol and hangs out all night in the streets, worrying his mother who is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The fourth teen is an African American who bullies students after school. He would often shake them down for money or physically assault them for no reason. Both of his parents are doing time in prison, and he is living with his grandmother. These four teens were the most likely to fail in life. They were disrespectful and belligerent. Nevertheless, the stage was set to move them to another type of educational environment—one that would hold them accountable in strict fashion, or else, the next move could have them sent away to the state reformatory for boys. This new educational environment for them would be an alternative school that would force them to plot a journey toward changing their attitude and behavior to be productive human beings, despite coming from a life of despair, stemming from a broken home. They have acknowledged that they are waist-deep in mud and need to be rescued, so therefore, they make a pact among themselves to succeed in life, to build and make an indelible work. The questions are, How do they do it? What is their plan to be rescued from the mud? Time will tell.