how did students in welch react to Jeannette nd why...hiw did she respond to them

Brian and Jeannette are placed in special classes for children with learning disabilities at Welch Elementary School because the principal is unable to understand their accents and they are unable to understand his. The students and teachers at Welch blame Jeannette for thinking that she is better than them. At recess, Jeannette is jumped by a crowd of girls, led by a bully named Dinitia Hewitt, but she does not tell her parents about it.

One day, Jeannette helps a young African American boy escape a dog attack. She carries him home and sees Dinitia watching her from across the street. After that, Dinitia begins to befriend Jeannette. Erma and Stanley, having prejudice towards black people, question Jeannette's choice of friends and warn her that others will consider her a "nigger lover."

Jeannette and Brian are teased by another kid in the neighborhood, Ernie Goad. Ernie calls their family garbage and assaults Brian and Jeannette with rocks. The siblings retaliate and chase Ernie and his gang away for good by dumping a pile of rocks on them from a building roof.