“25 words or less” – A group of
teachers continually battle several liberal teachers who are determined to
implement radical leftist policies within a rural Pennsylvania public high
school
Full Summary:
“High school is filled with petty, vindictive, downright
immature spoiled brats who spend their entire days gossiping and plotting the
destruction of their rivals. But what if
I told you the worst offenders weren’t the students but the teachers themselves? That’s right, the students can’t hold a
candle to the teachers’ behavior around these halls.”
Thus begins “Cliques” which opens on the first day of class for
the new school year at James Buchanan Memorial Public High School in rural
Pennsylvania, a school everyone just simply calls it “The Buck.” Judging from the cast of teachers that roam
the classroom and hallways, the school is rather fittingly named after one of
the worst Presidents in United States.
At the center of the story are two groups of teachers that
constantly battle each other for school supremacy and control of the minds and hearts
of its impressionable students. On one
side are the self-described “Cools,” a quartet of laid-back teachers that are
well liked by the students, led by gym teacher Greg McCarthy. He’s joined by Omar Williams, an
African-American history teacher, Karen Dudley, a teacher of general business,
and Danny Scofield, the perpetually present beloved substitute teacher.
“The Cools” normally are very carefree and always looking to
have fun while ensuring their students do well and graduate. However, there is one thing that always
manage to raise their ire and get under the skin and that is “The Intellects.” This is the other quartet group of educators
led by Betsy Cass, an uptight, militant liberal English teacher, who get upset about
and offended over anything and everything and are hell-bent on instituting their
radical leftist agenda against the unwitting student population. She’s joined by Randy Jones, a hardcore
activist art teacher, Oliver Schwartz, an overly politically correct, apologist
AP political science teacher, and Doris Green, an older, nerdy revisionist history
teacher.
Whether it’s teaching the student body about microaggressions,
the perceived wrongs of cultural appropriation, white privilege, white racial
socialization or the myths of meritocracy, just to name a few of her most
favorite militant liberal theories, Betsy and her group walk around with the
air of thinking they know what’s best for everyone else even as they spout
beliefs that generally seem detached from reality.
With the principal lacking any real power in the school due to
Betsy’s bullying tactics, it’s up to Greg McCarthy and his fellow “Cool” teachers
to challenge Betsy’s authority and her efforts to implement these radical
policies every chance they get.
In the first episode, Betsy uses her notorious strong-arm
tactics to single-handedly re-write the student handbook to incorporate countless
rules that address the microaggressions and white privilege that she supposedly
sees taking place daily, at least in her own mind. Having unveiled these hugely
unpopular policies at a school-wide assembly on the second day of school, Betsy
has very loudly drawn a figurative line in the sand in the philosophical battle
for control over the school. Although
Greg doesn’t directly respond to her changes right away he promises his fellow teachers
that he’s just biding his time and will fight back when the time is right…when
that time comes there’s no doubt it’ll be all out war between the two cliques throughout
the halls of “The Buck.”
Cliques Screenplay
Cliques Screenplay
