Nicholas (Nick) Stankowski, is a high school American History teacher;
he is a happily married man, he lives in a nice suburban neighborhood, in Indiana, and he's in line to become the next principal
of Elliston High.
However,
after one of his students, Jamel Carter, returns from spring break, Jamel begins skipping Nick's American History Class. Regardless
of the fact that Jamel is one of the school's star basketball players, Nick is obligated to report Jamel’s
truancy, and speaks to the school's basketball coach about him. The coach advises Jamel that he must return to Nick’s
history class or he'll be cut from the basketball roster.
Angry,
Jamel shows up in Nick’s
class the next day, but becomes embroiled in a racially charged fracas with Steve Feldson, another student who is also on
the basketball team, about remarks Jamel makes about cornerstone documents of American history, and American presidents. Both
students are excluded from school for a week which prevents them from practicing for an upcoming championship game with a
rival school.
Curious
about Jamel's attitude, and the remarks he made about American history, Nick pulls out his old college and high school text
books in an attempt to prove Jamel wrong. Unable to locate proof-positive of Jamel’s erroneous
statements, Nick contacts his former professor from college and arranges to meet with him to discuss the issue. However, Nick
is faced with a personal dilemma when the professor advises him that the statements Jamel had made about American history
were true. The professor provides Nick with several texts he’d been prevented from using during his teaching years, and advises Nick that pursuing
the truth as indicated in the texts could cause him to be publicly crucified.
Nick goes to the Carter's home to apologize for allowing Jamel to
be vilified in class, but Jamel refuses to talk to him. Instead, Nick talks to Jamel's father and learns that he and Jamel
had gone to Senegal in West Africa during spring break and had experienced the actual locations where African slaves had been
kidnapped and shipped off to America. After hearing about their emotional trip, Nick decides to push for a correction in the
history book being used in his class.
ACT II
Nick recommends a new book to the principal of the school stating
that the currently accepted history book did not accurately reflect the truth about American History. But the principal, a
bigot, explodes with anger, flatly refusing to consider a change in books. When Nick advises the principal that he intends
to bring up the issue at the next school board meeting, the principal suspends Nick for insubordination.
Nick's wife, Karin, who wants to enhance their standing in the community,
had asked Nick not to get involved with the controversy because it might jeopardize his chances of becoming the next principal
of the school. When word gets out that Nick has been suspended because of his intention to change the history book, the media
and several hooligans descend upon his home, frightening his wife and daughter, and trashing his front lawn.
Sorry that he'd caused a furor, but advising his wife that he must
act according to the dictates of his conscience, Nick is shattered when his wife tells him she is taking their daughter and
moving out of the house. The situation also causes a rift between Karin and their daughter, Beth, who feels her mother is
being disloyal to Nick in his time of need, and that her mother is also a bigot. Unknown to Nick and his wife, their daughter
is friends with Jamel who had prevented Steve Feldson from sexually harassing her earlier in the school year.
Upset over her argument with her mother, Beth runs out of the house,
calls Jamel, and Jamel picks her up at the local mall. Steve Feldson, and his friends who hang out at the mall, see Beth get
in Jamel's car, and Steve is goaded by his friends into calling the police.
Nick contacts several lawyers to represent him at the upcoming board
meeting, but is turned down by each one. He finally accepts a suggestion by a parking lot attendant to try a black lawyer
who lives just across the county line. Nick sees the lawyer who advises him that the case could go all the way to the Supreme
Court, and that it could also ruin his life.
Karin arrives at her mother's home expecting to find her daughter
who is not there. She talks to her grandmother who calls her a coward and tells her a little known family secret that causes
Karin to rethink her position and go home. Karin arrives back home just as Nick momentarily entertains the thought of suicide.
She tells him how sorry she was for leaving and that no matter what she loves him. The phone rings, and they are told that
Beth is being held at the police station on a curfew violation. When they retrieve Beth, they find out about Jamel saving
Beth from Steve Feldson's unwanted advances. They see Steve and his friends as they leave the police station, and Nick talks
to Steve about his relationship with Beth.
ACT III
The media and everyone in town attend the board meeting where, after
the testimony of the principal and several others, it appears the entire town is against him, and Nick is ready to collapse.
Seeing the toll the controversy is taking on his family, Nick decides to resign. But before he does, he makes a powerful statement
to the board and everyone in the room about the responsibility of being an American. He then advises the board that he does
not want to live or work in a community that does not value the truth, and he submits his resignation. However, the board
reprimands him for thinking he is the only one of integrity in the town, and they refuse to accept his resignation telling
him they have reviewed his research and agree that the book should be changed. In addition, the board offers him the job as
the next principal of Elliston High.
Elliston High wins the season basketball championship when Jamel
and Steve work together to break the tie in the last 15 seconds of the game. Later in the locker room, Steve apologizes to
Jamel and Jamel gives Steve tips on how to win Beth over. The next day, Nick challenges his multicultural class to forget
their ethnic differences and begin again as Americans.
WGA Registration
number (1188373)
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