The Monkey Jar

The action of The Monkey Jar takes place around a charter elementary school in an upscale, predominantly white neighborhood in California with the focus on a firestorm of parent/teacher/administration reactions that ensue when an Asian-American ten-year-old (adopted son of Jewish parents) brings a gun to class and allegedly uses it to threaten his (Japanese) Fourth Grade teacher. Though the outcome should be obvious — "bring a gun to school, get expelled"– the matter is complicated by issues of race and sexual preference, and most significantly, the community’s manifest desire to maintain the school’s pristine reputation. All of which leaves the first-year African-American principal in a quandary as to how to determine the truth…and then strike a balance between what is expedient and what is right.