Thirty eight killed and one-hundred-twenty-three
wounded as American troops
and North Vietnamese refugees clash near the border.
Do you believe that - a dollar- nineteen for a pound of bacon?
Just last week it was ninety-nine cents!
There's hardly any lean meat on there.
Norma, where are my brown socks? /Oh - they're in the dryer.
Wayne! Why don't you have a little toast with your jelly?
Mom, the yokes are runny. I can't eat 'em if the yokes are runny.
In nineteen-sixty-nine,
we had the Vietnam war for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I guess it was inevitable that we stopped paying attention.
A seemingly endless procession of refugees has flooded Saigon...
And the food, shelter and medical services are already in short supply...
Ya had to stop paying attention.
Get involved... In government.
Remember, it's your student council, people.
Alright, class.
You heard Mr. Diperna.
Let's have nominations for our home room representative.
Home room elections.
As a scholastic highlight, it ranked right up there with "safety week".
Alright, then - who wants to be our representative?
Any volunteers?
Surely...There is someone in this room
with enough respect for democracy...
To volunteer to be...Our representative to the student-council.
Kevin?
Can I go to the bathroom?
Is your home room having elections?
Yeah. Pretty lame, though nobody's even running.
Yeah. It's kinda cool to be president or something,
but home room rep... Is for weenies.
Yeah.
Alright...We have one vote for Mr. Ed...
Very funny...
And we have four votes for Ringo Starr.
And we have...Twenty-six votes, for our new Home room representative...
Who's the weenie? / Kevin...Arnold.
Well...Some men pursue greatness...
And some men have greatness thrust upon them,
while they're in the bathroom.
Paul!
Kevin - what are you doing here?
They made me home room representative...Can ya believe it?
Yeah...me too
How'd you get stuck with it? /I dunno.
It was either the balloons... Or the pencils.
About an hour into the meeting...
I began to see the true nature of student-council.
It was basically organized whining.
How come we only have ice-cream sandwiches in our ice-cream machine?
I mean at Madison, they have three choices.
I think we should have push-ups.
Drumsticks! / Popsicles!
Alright...
The proposal is to offer pushups in the ice cream machine.
But when it came to the issues that really mattered...
Party lines were crosses, and everyone rallied their support.
I think we should have a jukebox in the cafeteria.
yeah Order, order, order...
That's better. Now, do I have a second?
Well, obviously, you're all in favor.
Well, if there are no more proposals, we can...
Yes, Mark? What is it?
Yeah...I propose we honor the national moratorium next Friday
by organizing a walk out.
To protest the immoral...
Colonialist repression of the Peoples Republic of Vietnam,
by the running dog lackeys of the Fascist US Government.
Any seconds?
Sorry, Mark...
It's a chance to make a real statement against the war.
There'll be marches all over the country.
We'll be walking out...during class.
Alright, order...
Listen, hey!
Now, I don't know if the student council can vote to do something like this.
Mr. Tyler?
Mr. Tyler.
He was faculty advisor to the student council, but more than that...
He was our cool teacher. You know the type.
Rides a motorcycle...lets you have class outside on nice days...
Lacks respect for authority...
Everybody waited to see... What Mr. Tyler would say.
Like Mr. Diperna says... this is your student council.
All in favor?
Don't forget...to sign up for a committee. Meeting is adjourned.
We have to join a committee? /Yeah, come on!
There's school spirit, social, ice-cream, jukebox, or walk out.
So..what do you say - jukebox?
No, the line's too long for jukebox.
Well, I'd say social...
But Nancy Cardian's the chairman for that, and Mrs. Gambino's the advisor.
And I can't stand either one of those, so...
I don't know - maybe ice-cream...
Well, which one is Mr. Tyler advisor for?
I don't know. Looks like he's doing walk out.
Let's do walk out.
"Houchie Coochie Man" - Muddy Waters
OK, pick a card - any card.
Alright, now...look at it... Don't tell me what it is.
put it back
Hi. What's your name?
Kevin / Kevin - cut the cards.
Good.
Is that your card?
No.
No?
Well, wait a minute.
Is that it? / No.
Well, uh...Is that it?
How'd you do that?
We did card tricks for about twenty minutes...
And then switched to 5-card stud.
I couldn't believe it - I'd never known a teacher like this.
Mr. Tyler was so cool...
You could feel yourself becoming cooler in his presence.
Alright, Paul - your deal.
Mr. Tyler?
When are we gonna talk about? The walk out?
Leave it to Mark Hooper... To spoil a good thing.
Well, it's about time.
Hey... It's not my meeting.
OK...well...I think we should talk about the walk out.
I think we need a strategy.
OK, so...what do we do first?
Well... Maybe you should start by, uh...
Figuring out how you're gonna mobilize eight-hundred students
all at the same time. / Right...Right.
How do we do that?
Well, that's why we have all these minds here.
What do you think, Rusty?
Good luck!
It's not that Rusty Drotman was stupid...
It's just that he sort of drifted through life in a purple haze.
Oh, wow. Well, we could just... Well, we could just...
Like, you know, uh... I mean, you know, uh...wow.
Think, Rusty, think.
Think! / OK - wait! OK!
So, uh...
OK, I got it! We all split up, and...
OK - you can do it. Come on.
And knock on all the homeroom doors to give 'em the signal.
Yeah! That's it! OK, relax, Rusty. This man needs sustinence.
Throw me that orange, Kevin.
Here, eat this - build your strength back up.
OK, OK, good! So, so at nine o'clock...
We go to all the homerooms, we mobilize the whole school,
and then...We march out on the football field.
Then what?
"Then what?"
Well, I mean, what is the point of this walk out?
How is standing around in a football field...
Going to end the war? Who's gonna know the difference?
Kevin?
I-I don't know, unless...
Unless we can get on TV, or something.
Or, or in the papers!
Yeah, wait, wait! That's good, that's good! We could use -
we could use the media. /We could write a letter to Channel 5,
and we could tell them -
We could get other schools To do it too - like Madison and Whitman...
Yeah! And we could organize this whole big thing...
Where all the kids from all the schools -
Ahem. Mr Tyler.
Could I speak to you for a moment?
OK...Uh, there is something Mr. Diperna here would like to say to you.
Thank you. Mr. Tyler.
I'm afraid that Kennedy junior high school
cannot tolerate a student-council committee
that encourages students to violate school rules.
Any student participating in a walk out...
During school hours...Will be subject to... Immediate suspension,
and, it will go on your permanent record.
Do I make myself clear?
Your permanent record.
After the initial shock of Mr. Diperna's announcement...
We did what any teenager would do
when his deepest convictions are challenged.
It's not fair.
We whined.
Are we going to do it?
Well, what do you think?
I don't know.
I don't want to get suspended from school...
Sounds pretty smart to me.
I think we should fight 'em.
Why?
Because we should protest the war.
are you guys really serious about that?
of course, we are
Why do you want to protest the war?
Because it's an Imperialist act by -
Mr. Tyler?
I'm sorry, Mark. It's funny -
the moment I hear the word "Imperialist", I go into a coma.
Can't you just tell me in your own words?
What about you, Kevin?
Why do you want to protest the war?
I don't know..
So, you're just...going along with the crowd.
No.
Seems to me... If you don't know why you're doin' somethin',
it can't be worth much.
Mr. Tyler was right.
I felt like an idiot. What did I really know about the Vietnam war?
I wasn't even sure if "Vietnam" was one word or two.
Is it that you think... all wars are wrong?
Well...yeah!
So, you think...nothing's worth fighting for?
Well, no...I mean -
Well, then, how can you sure... We should end this war?
Well, it's like...A lot of people are getting killed.
You know, like...little kids, and, and their whole families and stuff.
And people from over here who are fighting,
don't always even want to fight. / They don't have any choice...
Or they have to go to jail, and...
And, yeah...The thing is, you know,
nobody even knows what they're really over there for.
As we all talked, we began to realize that maybe we knew
more than we thought we did.
Sure - we didn't really know Ho Chi Minh...
From Captain Kangaroo,
but we knew that a lot of people were getting hurt.
And we knew that it didn't seem to be doing anybody any good.
I-I just think it's wrong, that's all.
OK.
So? What do you want to do?
We need a strategy.
What's our strategy?
few people are aware of this but i have you know the fact
paul piffer here is a great political strategist
I am?
common, paul, you 're among friends you just keep up the cover
let's show
ok, i think i got it
How about... If we start a petition-drive?
A petition-drive?
Well, yeah! You know...if we could collect enough signatures,
then we could force Diperna to take us seriously!
It's over four-hundred signatures.
Yes, indeed.
I appreciate you showing these to me.
Now, there's something I'd like to show to you.
Section...One-seven- three-nine-point-five...
Of the State Education Code.
Kevin? Read that for us?
All students shall remain in class at all times during school hours...
Unless otherwise authorized by the administration.
And that, ladies and gentlemen... Is the law of the land.
We can either obey that law, or we can suffer the consequences.
Now, if...You would like...to write your State assemblymen,
and try and get... The law changed... More power to you.
But, as long as it's on the books...
If I, or any other teacher... Were to allow this...
We'd be promoting truancy.
And an educator can't advocate that... Now can he?
Now, I know you're disappointed, but think of this as a learning experience.
Did you learn something?
Yeah. I learned
you're an even bigger butthead than I thought you were.
I guess so.
Well, that's what school's all about, isn't it?
Uh, don't forget...for anyone who thinks that he's above the law...
That's immediate suspension...
And it will go on your permanent record.
Your permanent...record.
Oh, and Mr. Tyler...
I'd like to speak with you.
Well it was a bit of a set-back.
But we were getting used to locking horns with authority figures.
We reacted pretty maturely.
It's not fair! /Diperna's a jerk.
We whined. / He can't get away with this.
What about our rights?
What about the petition? Over four-hundred signatures!
What's the use of having a student government,
if you can't take any action? I mean, what is he - king?
And it's a free country! He can't stop us, can he, Mr. Tyler?
Boy - he was really goin' after the old chin.
I was afraid he was gonna rub it right off.
No, he can't stop ya.
You can do whatever you want to do. But...
You should give your actions serious consideration,
because they may have serious consequences.
Are you telling us not to do it?
Was he?
Had Diperna gotten to him?
No. I'm not sayin' that.
In a way, you're lucky to have opposition.
That's the way life is.
It's easy to take a stand on something...
If there's no risk involved.
it's easy to record for man if you keep a dollar by yourself
It's easy to take a stand against the war...
So long as nobody asks ya to make a real sacrifice.
But...
Not all of us are ready to sacrifice.
Sometimes the...price of acting on our convictions is...too high.
What do you think we should do?
I can't tell you that.
Each of you has to make that decision for himself.
Immediate suspension from school,
and...it will go on your permanent record -
do i make myself clear? your permanent...record. record...record...
And now - at last.
The heroic crew of first manned space flight to Mars,
led by Commander Kevin Arnold.
Wait a minute - wait a minute.
This just in...we have just learned that Kevin Arnold left class
during school hours,
when he was in seventh grade. I can't believe it, Jim.
The mission has been scrubbed.
I don't remember when I finally made the decision.
I guess I didn't know what I was gonna do...
Until I found myself doing it.
We were gonna walk right up to Mr. Tyler,
and show him what we we're made of.
I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he saw what we'd decided.
He was gonna look so proud...
So happy.
So...
Much like a woman.
Where's Mr. Tyler?
He's out with the flu.
What?
sounds like he had a bad case of the
I didn't know what to think. Was Mr. Tyler a coward?
I mean, to believe in somebody like that,
and to have it all turn out to be a lie.
I was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that was completely new.
I had to make a decision.
Everybody was watching me.
Buzzing about the walk out.
What was I gonna do? Was I gonna lead the walk out?
Or was I gonna chicken out, too?
And then I decided.
I'd just get up...
Walk out that door...
Into the hallway...
And into the bathroom.
I was gonna throw up.
There wasn't gonna be any walk out.
What's happening?
It's the walk out. Don't you know about the walk out?
And that's how I started...
The great Kennedy junior high peace walk out of nineteen-sixty-nine.
As I said...some men pursue greatness...
and some men have greatness thrust upon them...
While they're in the bathroom.
All we are saying...
Is give peace a chance.
All we are saying...
I'm not sure we really changed anything that day.
I suppose the war would have gone pretty much the same
if we'd stayed in home room.
But one thing would be different.
We wouldn't have the memory to carry with us today,
of eight-hundred children on a football field, singing.
And...it wouldn't all be on our permanent record.
.is give peace a chance.
All we are saying...