SYNOPSIS

In a cluttered and underfunded school office, PRINCIPAL CLAUDETTE LATETE and VICE PRINCIPAL JANKO KOSTIC clash over his long-overdue raise. CLAUDETTE, oblivious and fixated on her positivity mantra, deflects KOSTIC’s complaints with corporate lingo and school kindness week slogans. She offloads a mountain of paperwork on him, including parent letters concerning past bomb threats, which she instructs him to recycle unread.

CESAR MENDOZA, a laid-back teacher with a terrible toupee and a “Beer O’Clock” shirt, arrives with student-submitted slogans for kindness week. As they sort through them—ranging from earnest to obscene—the absurdity of the initiative becomes clear. The group brainstorms rewards and enforcement tactics, including a student “Smile Squad,” which spirals into fascist-sounding territory. The tension is broken when KOSTIC receives a walkie-talkie alert that a student, DEREK DIBBLE, has brought a gun to school. He calmly declares a lockdown, as if it’s just another routine disruption.

The scene abruptly shifts to the following school year. CLAUDETTE is now armed with an Uzi and Glock. KOSTIC wears a Kevlar vest and carries a semi-auto rifle. MENDOZA enters dressed like a cartoon soldier. They are jaded but unfazed. CLAUDETTE proposes extending kindness week to kindness month while ignoring the clanging radiator and chaos outside. Despite the absurd militarization, her primary concern remains her new highlights. As gunfire and screams erupt offstage, the three casually eat Dum-Dums. The world burns around them, but institutional rituals persist.