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Les Miserables‘ Jean Valjean was famously imprisoned for stealing a mouthful of bread, and a middle schooler in Prince William County will face trial for allegedly stealing a 65 cent carton of milk.

Ryan Turk, now a high school freshman, says that he forgot to take the milk last May when he picked up his lunch at Graham Park Middle School, so he went back to get a carton, reports The Washington Post. Turk received free lunches, which include milk.

The school resource officer told a different story: Turk allegedly cut the line to steal the milk and then refused to go to the principal’s office. He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and petit larceny. The matter is going to court after Turk and his family turned down a chance to avoid trial through a diversion program.

“My son is not going to admit to something he did not do,” his mother, Shamise Turk, told The Post. The paper notes that it doesn’t normally identify minors accused of crimes, but Turk’s family want to make the issue public to bring attention to racism in the education system.

Turk is black and told The Post he’s seen other students do exactly what he did with zero consequences. This comes at a time when there’s growing awareness of the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, where students’ actions are criminalized—particularly students of color, who face disproportionate suspensions, expulsions, and school-related arrests.

But Prince William County School District says that the incident doesn’t have to do with race. “All the key parties involved, including the principal and the police officer, are African American,” Phil Kavits, a Prince William County schools spokesman, said in a release to The Post. (The school system has yet to return our call.)

But Turk’s lawyer, Emmett Robinson, maintains that the race of individuals is immaterial when the system itself is racist. “The system is set up now so that school resource officers get to determine the impact on a person’s life,” he told The Post.