Joe prepares for his first day as the new principal of Benjamin Harrison High School, but not before agreeing to undergo marriage counseling with his wife, Carol. Mary Caitlin's motorcycle is stolen by a punk, who rides it right out of the school. Joe overhears that the previous principal had a nervous breakdown. Gus, believing Jack is to be promoted to principal, tries unsuccessfully to persuade Jack to let him teach science. Jack believes it himself and begins preparing for his new duties before finding out the bad news. After observing things, Joe concludes that most of the school's problems can be attributed to the teachers, so he holds a faculty meeting and threatens the others to do their jobs -- or else. A board official, Connie, warns Joe that the complaints are racking up against him and he should keep a lower profile. Joe doesn't listen, and continues to tick off the faculty members with his ""improvements,"" then stirs up the hornet's nest by assigning Harry and Sara to work o

Mary Caitlin's conscience is weighed upon after a professor, Mr. Gianelli, confesses a secret to her shortly before he dies of a heart attack - a secret he wants her to tell his wife. One of the students, Eddie, is hounded by another classmate over his perceived homosexuality. Donna, an unwed mother who brings her child to school, is going through a crisis.

Matthew arrives at Benjamin Harrison as a sub, inexperienced and unaware of what he's in for. Fed up with a lack of chalk and erasers, Sara keeps pressing for her transfer to another school -- one that's willing to pay for school supplies. Harry tries to help a failing gang leader, Julio, whom he wants to see get into college, but Jack's refusal to change Julio's history grade -- and Julio's not wanting it to be changed -- stand between them. Joe fights tooth and nail to prevent Benjamin Harrison's day care center from being shut down when the conservative school board decides that it glamorizes -- and encourages -- teen pregnancy. Matthew tries to teach, but the students just laugh at him and walk out of his classes... even after he follows Gus' advice on how to get them to stay. Sara demands Joe sign her transfer after a student swipes her copy of ""David Copperfield"" and refuses to return it. Like Sara, Matthew threatens to quit himself when the students turn him into an impromptu da

Benjamin Harrison's decision to hand out free condoms causes a media uproar to the already tense situations -- one that puts Mary Caitlin at odds with the church. Donna is harrassed by an unstable former boyfriend after telling him he is not the father of her child.

Joe makes faculty members take aptitude tests that they must pass in order to continue teaching -- and makes no secret of the fact that he hopes Mr. Kaczmarek will flunk it; Harry's friendship with another professor, Charlie, is jeopardized when Charlie confesses to Harry that the only reason he passed an earlier aptitude test was because he cheated; and Roz struggles to learn how to read.

Jack has a physical for his wife's insurance policy, and is told he's in poor health. Harry unloads a troublemaker, Johnny, in Sara's class, because none of the other English teachers want him. Johnny walks out, and Sara tells him to never come back. Joe finds a way to get rid of Mr. Kaczmarek -- if his students don't pass a test Joe plans to personally give them, so long. Matthew follows Mary Caitlin, and discovers a secret she was trying to keep from the rest of the faculty -- she's participating in a church-sponsored program for runaway youths. Charlie has it out with Harry because he's stuck working in the rubber room pending an investigation. Mary Caitlin tries to no avail to help out one of the runaways, Sandy, who's got severe issues concerning her parents. Johnny begs Harry to give him another chance in Sara's class -- at least she was honest enough to say she doesn't like him. Mary Caitlin is angry to find out Matthew followed her, and confesses that she hasn't spoken to her m

Harry faces the impending consequences of Johnny's untruthful complaint against him, which the other students believe. A former friend of Matthew's, Whittington, comes to Matthew with a proposition: the chance to see the inner-workings of smart kids in a good school. Joe has no choice but to suspend Harry and put him to work in the administration office until the hearing. Suspecting Mr. Reese to be the actual culprit -- which he is -- Joe requests Johnny's father meet with him to talk about the incident. Joe and Carol discuss whether or not they should keep the baby. Charlie has a good laugh at Harry's expense now that they're both in the rubber room. Sara blasts Joe for suspending Harry, but Joe turns the conversation around and asks Sara to step up while Jack and Harry are out of commission. Jack leaves the hospital a poor man. Whittington shows Matthew how well-behaved and sharp (and smug) the suit-wearing students at Darwin Prep are. Back at Benjamin Harrison, Matthew tries to conv

A flu epidemic slims down the teacher population, including the basketball coach, so Joe puts Gus back in charge of the team. When Jack pesters Joe about wanting to be coach, Joe gets him off his back by telling him he's nominated him for teacher of the year. Roz returns to school in the wake of her sister's suicide, and turns to Mr. Turner, her sister's favorite teacher, for answers. Joe and Carol become the newest members of their condo's association, and invite the committee to their place to hold their latest meeting. But when they find out from their neighbors that the entire group hates children and don't want them in the building, Carol announces that she's pregnant, and throws them all out. An enraged Roz attacks a female classmate for saying that Mr. Turner was caught cheating. With the hearing looming, Sara asks Harry if he's having second thoughts about turning him in. Mary Caitlin is hot for Guy, but doesn't know how to tell him she likes him, so she begs Matthew to do it f

It's the first day back at Benjamin Harrison, the first day there period for smart alec transfer student Snyder. Joe tries to break up a fight between two black students -- one of whom has a gun -- and winds up shot. Mary Caitlin, who got splattered with Joe's blood, feels guilty because she was too afraid to ride in the ambulance with everybody else, but Matthew comforts her by saying Joe's alright. Gus blows up at Mrs. Biederman, and accuses her of being a racist after she bitches about the shooter, Bobby Devlin. Students and faculty alike discuss how Bobby threw his scholarship to Princeton away. One of Sara's students convinces her to have her class write papers about how the shooting affected them personally. Mary Caitlin confesses to Matthew that she wants him. Jack gets cranky when the school board assigns Mrs. Molina, rather than him, to run things while Joe is recovering. Even though he never taught Bobby, Gus visits him in juvenile detention. Bobby confesses that he didn't me

Most of the faculty decide to strike, leaving Joe scrambling for substitutes when he refuses to shut the school down, while Sara's and Harry's relationship is put to the test when they wind up on opposite sides of the picket line. Meanwhile, Harry and Jack face additional stress when Harry's ex-wife, Chris, sues him for custody of Max and Nicole, and Jack has a fender bender with Mary Caitlin, who doesn't have insurance.

An angry Joe holds a parent/teacher meeting, because 30% of the students are terminal truants. Unfortunately, most of the parents take after their kids. Matthew assumes he's lost Roz when he sees her skipping school. With Harry's case not going well, Sara offers up the services of her attorney ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey, whom Harry can't stand. Sara gets stuck with an incompetent, irascible, middle-aged student helper, Margo Bleiweiss, whose idea of teaching is to throw things at the class. A social services guy, O'Connor, fills Joe in on how one of the truants only shows up on days when he has to have a welfare form signed. Matthew tracks Roz down at her new job as a diner waitress to persuade her to come back, but Roz says her mother needs the extra cash. A student is killed after getting hit by a car during school hours, prompting Joe to look for a way to force the parents to get their spawn to stop playing hooky. O'Connor's comment gives Joe an idea -- stop signing all the truants' welf

A female student accuses a male professor of rape, Sara and Harry break up, Matthew mourns the loss of his Uncle Louie, and Roz is mocked by others for taking a stand against dissecting frogs.

An illiterate student carrying a bomb takes Jack hostage, and Carol gives birth.

Mary Caitlin witnesses a drug deal in the girls' bathroom and pushes Joe to punish the buyer -- unaware that the drugs were for the girls' parents, Henry the stutterer flies off the handle when a scholarship he thought he had turns out to be a fraud, Sara tries to mooch a quarter of a million dollars off her father to make good on the scholarship for Henry and others, Joe takes in Jack after his wife leaves him, and Roz looks to find a date for the spring dance.

Benjamin Harrison is under attack over a science teacher inflicting his religious beliefs into the theory of evolution, Mary Caitlin asks Matthew to see other people after he brings up the subject of children, Jack has a nervous breakdown in the wake of his wife leaving him, Sara panicks now that her father has cut her off, and a juvenile delinquent harrasses other students who don't believe in his God.

Joe discovers that homelessness is the cause of a girl's sudden behavioral change at school.

A Hasidic Jewish student wants Mary Caitlin to teach him how to paint -- despite the fact that painting is against his religion. Meanwhile, Joe learns the hospital was to blame for Carol's death.

When Harry learns that an engaged student is gay, he plans to do the courteous thing -- out him to his fiance.

Reminded of the war-torn '60s, Sara becomes outraged after learning that one of her star pupils is planning to drop out of high school to join the Marines.