You think you can run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks in my meetings. NO ONE! Take out your pencils and write. I want the names of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. Reverend Slappy...you are now the chief custodian, Reverend Slappy. You will scour this building clean. Graffiti goes up, it's off the next day. Is that clear?... Detention students can help you. Let them scrub this place for awhile, and tear down those cages in the cafeteria. You treat them like animals, that's exactly how they'll behave! This is my new Dean of Security, Mr. William Wright. He will be my Avenging Angel, as you teachers reclaim the halls. This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, HOW CAN YOU TEACH?! Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! Mr. Zorella...Mr. Zorella, you are now my new Head Football Coach. Mr. Darnell. Stand up, Mr. Darnell. Mr. Darnell will be your assistant. You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting pushed all over the field. Thank you. Sit down. I want precision. I want a weight program. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can quit. Same goes for the rest of ya. You tried it your way for years. And your students can't even get past the Minimum Basic Skills Test. THAT MEANS THEY CAN HARDLY READ! They've given me less than one year, one school year to turn this place around, to get those test scores up, so the state will not take us over to perform the tasks which you have failed to do! TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN! Forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy. We are in a state of emergency and my word is law. There's only one boss in this place, and that's me - the "HNIC." Are there any questions? Mr Wright.
OM Mr. O'Malley
[exits]
"HNIC"?
Ms. Levias The "Head **** in charge".
Hey, Mr. Clark, what did they get you for?
Ms. Levias What's the charge? What's this all about?
LB Leona Barrett
It's about someone finally standing up to this man instead of taking his orders like a maid.
Ms. Levias How dare you speak about people like that? Who do you think you are?
Mrs. Barrett, if you think you can-
LB Leonna Barrett
SHUT UP! You're finished! [holds up the tape recorder] The school board's gonna hear this at 7:00, and we're gonna vote your black ass out.
[Calling after Barrett]
Yo, bitch! Vote on THIS! [gestures angrily]
Sams, you go to class. Ms. Levias you're acting principal now. I expect you to perform as I would.
Ms. Levias Mr. Clark.
C Mr. Clark
Yes, Ms. Levias?
Ms. Levias May I talk to you for a minute, please?
C Mr. Clark
What do you want?
Ms. Levias I want you to transfer me.
Ms. Levias Out of here.
C Mr. Clark
You know, this doesn't surprise me one bit, Ms. Levias. I've sensed resistance in you since our very first meeting.
Ms. Levias You're an egomanical windbag.
C Mr. Clark
Who are you talking to?
Ms. Levias I'm talking to you. You like to whip people who can't fight back. I thought I could take it because I had a father in the same kind of pain that makes you such a bastard, but I was wrong. Life is much too short. I will not endure you any longer!
C Mr. Clark
You will not endure me!?
Ms. Levias The only reason I haven't walked out and half the staff along with me is because those children need us here.
C Mr. Clark
Oh, the children need you?
Ms. Levias You're so busy talking discipline, you forget to educate!
C Mr. Clark
Is that so? Then what the hell do you think I've been doing all this time?
Ms. Levias So you cleaned it up. That was the easy part.
C Mr. Clark
That's the easy part?
Ms. Levias Those children want to be helped. They have worked their hearts out for you, Joe. Done everything we've asked them, believed what we told them. But I feel sorry for them. They're not ready to take that test!
C Mr. Clark
What the hell are you talking about? I have done everything——
Ms. Levias I! I! It it always I! There are 300 teachers on the faculty here! You do NOT do it all alone!
C Mr. Clark
[begins to walk away]
I don't have to stand here and listen to these accusations.
Ms. Levias You WILL listen! You will stand there and you will listen!
C Mr. Clark
All right, Ms. Levias. All right, go ahead and talk.
Ms. Levias For the past seven months, you've been flapping your mouth and you haven't heard a thing. You haven't even seen what's painfully obvious.
C Mr. Clark
I'll tell you what I DO see, lady——
Ms. Levias NO! I'M talking now! Let me finish! Everybody here may not like you as a person, but we all applaud your effort. But what you don't understand is that the same people who support you are the ones that you're beating up! You don't even take the time to say, "Thank You", "Job Well Done", nothing. You just step in their necks, constantly abuse them, criticize them.
C Mr. Clark
(walks towards Ms. Levias)
Ms. Levias, what do you want from me? What the HELL do you want?!
Ms. Levias I want you to get this straight. Most of the teachers that are here are here because they care about those children out there, this school, this fight. They are in it with you. They take it home at night the same as you. They are part of those children's lives. You are thoughtless and cruel. And it hurts. And none of them deserve it. They are sick of it and so am I.
