The Principal
Pioneered “the righteous white teacher saving the minority students” genre later followed by Dangerous Minds, Sunset Park, Music of the Heart.
Jim Belushi stars as Rick Latimer, a high school teacher down on his luck. His wife is divorcing him, he has anger issues, the school board is on his case. In fact, he thinks he’s going to be disciplined by the board, when instead they promote him to principal. But his new school is the dreadful, and dreaded, Brandel High, where all the problem kids go who’ve been kicked out of other schools. With the help of head of security Jake Phillips (Louis Gossett, Jr.) and teacher Hilary Orozco (Rae Dawn Chong), Rick must challenge the sense of lawlessness that pervades the school, as exemplified by brutal gang leader Victor Duncan (Michael Wright). Rick Latimer has run out of options. He’s got to make it work at Brandel, or die trying.