Monique Dupree

Dr. Frank Napier: Did you see this yet?

[holding up newspaper story about Clark's fight with a former student]

Dr. Frank Napier: You know, a lot of your shit comes down on my head.

Joe Clark: Oh, Frank! Look, this is...

Dr. Frank Napier: No, You let me talk! It's like you're a big bird with radar and I'm tired of getting hit!

Joe Clark: Th... this is my fault?

Dr. Frank Napier: This is nothing! I've got union lawyers threatening me and there's talk of a walk-out!

Joe Clark: Well, let 'em! They're not doing anything down there anyway!

Dr. Frank Napier: It is your job to...

Joe Clark: None of them have a personal stake at that school! Not one!

Dr. Frank Napier: The fire chief was just in here. He said it was illegal to bar those doors. Mrs. Barrett is organizing a parents' group to try and get you removed since you insulted them at that meeting the other night when you suggested they should get off welfare...

Joe Clark: Oh, I didn't mean all of...

Dr. Frank Napier: ...because the fact is quite a few of them need it.

Joe Clark: I wasn't talking to all of them, Frank! Look, you came and recruited me, man, but you disappoint me, brother. You disappoint me!

Dr. Frank Napier: The disappointment here is you!

Joe Clark: Me?

Dr. Frank Napier: Yes!

Joe Clark: You know who I am. You've known me thirty years! You knew what I would do! You know how I operate!

Dr. Frank Napier: Nigger, will you keep quiet! the fact is you're screwing up! You're alienating everybody! Look at you, you have no life! Your wife left you! Hell, I oughta walk out on you myself!

Joe Clark: Well, go ahead! Bail the hell out!

Dr. Frank Napier: But I said I'd back you up!

Joe Clark: That's what you said, man! That's what you said!

Dr. Frank Napier: I would go through the... fire with you, but you are not taking care of business! This shit you're pulling now, you've just gone plain loco! Now you suspend Darnell! What the hell was that?

Joe Clark: Darnell is symptomatic of the disciplinary problems...

Dr. Frank Napier: He is a good, strong, young Black teacher! So he... dumped that desk right on top of your head. Well, right on! Good for him! You will reinstate that man, you hear? And you fire Mrs. Elliott! Why? Because she didn't want to kiss your ass! I wouldn't neither! How about that?

Joe Clark: Mrs. Elliott has an ego problem!

Dr. Frank Napier: Well, you lost the best teacher we ever had! We couldn't get her back now if we wanted to!

Joe Clark: [Clark's roof-top pep-talk to Thomas Sams] Now, let me tell you something: The trouble with being a teenager is you don't know nothing. The problem with teenagers is you THINK you're smarter than people who've already been down the road you're traveling. You know what I'm trying to say, boy?

[Sams hangs his head; Joe picks it up for him]

Joe Clark: DO YOU?

Thomas Sams: Yes, sir.

Joe Clark: Did you tell your father I threw you out of school?

[Sams hangs his head again]

Joe Clark: LOOK AT ME, DAMN IT!

Thomas Sams: No, sir.

Joe Clark: Why not? No guts, huh? Afraid of what he's gonna say to you, aren't ya?

Thomas Sams: My father doesn't live with us anymore, sir.

Joe Clark: Oh, is that what you're doing now? Goin' around, feeling sorry for yourself, boy? Huh? Go on, get outta here! You're wasting my time!

Thomas Sams: [crying] Please, let me back, sir! I have to get back to school. I can't go home to tell my momma I got kicked out of school.

Joe Clark: Now why should I let you back into my school, Sams?

Thomas Sams: 'Cause I'm gonna do better, sir.

Joe Clark: How?

Thomas Sams: By doing my work.

Joe Clark: What else?

Thomas Sams: And staying out of trouble.

Joe Clark: What have you been thinking about all this time? Why should I believe you now?

Thomas Sams: 'Cause I changed my ways.

Joe Clark: I don't believe you, Sams. I don't think you've changed a thing. Go on, jump!

Thomas Sams: [sobbing] No, I don't wanna jump!

Joe Clark: Yes, you do! You smoke crack, don't ya?

[Sams hangs his head; Clark lifts it right back up]

Joe Clark: You smoke crack, don't ya?

[Sams hangs his head again, sobbing]

Joe Clark: LOOK AT ME, BOY! DON'T YOU SMOKE CRACK?

Thomas Sams: Ye-ye... yes, sir.

Joe Clark: You know what that does to ya? Huh?

Thomas Sams: No, sir.

Joe Clark: [tapping Sams's head] It kills your braincells, son! It kills your braincells! Now, when you're destroying your braincells, you're doing the same thing as killing yourself; you're just doing it slower! Now, I say if you wanna kill yourself, don't fuck around with it! Go on and do it EXPEDITIOUSLY! Now go on and jump! JUMP!

Thomas Sams: [crying] No! I don't wanna kill myself, sir!

Joe Clark: [calming down] You're quite sure about this, are ya?

Thomas Sams: Yes, sir.

Joe Clark: [pause] Alright, Sams, I'll tell ya what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go back on my own word, just this once, and let you back into my school... 'cause you're still a baby and you don't know shit.

[points his finger at Sams]

Joe Clark: But you understand this, boy. You're not gonna get a moment's rest! I'm gonna be on your case every minute! You mess up just once and you're outta here! Now you understand me?

[pause]

Joe Clark: Do you understand me?

Thomas Sams: Yes, sir.

Joe Clark: [calmly] Alright, go on back downstairs.

[as Sams departs from the roof, Joe turns away. His expression becomes grateful, as if to say, "At least I got ONE of those 300 back; I was hoping more of them would see the light."]