"Cliques"

“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