Freedom Writers Page #2

Synopsis: It's 1994 in Long Beach, California. Idealistic Erin Gruwell is just starting her first teaching job, that as freshman and sophomore English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, which, two years earlier, implemented a voluntary integration program. For many of the existing teachers, the integration has ruined the school, whose previously stellar academic standing has been replaced with many students who will be lucky to graduate or even be literate. Despite choosing the school on purpose because of its integration program, Erin is unprepared for the nature of her classroom, whose students live by generations of strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. The only person the students hate more is Ms. Gruwell. It isn't until Erin holds an unsanctioned discussion about a recent drive-by shooting death that she fully begins to un
Director(s): Richard LaGravenese
Production: Paramount Pictures
  2 wins & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
64
Rotten Tomatoes:
70%
PG-13
Year:
2007
123 min
$36,489,507
Website
4,502 Views


Jamal?

So, now you're in my face now, right?

Sit your punk ass down!

Sit your punk ass down, homeboy!

I will run that ass off the field.

Shut your ass up. What's up, homey?

I mean, what's up?

Sit your ass down, homey!

Excuse me,

may I please get some help in here?

So do something! Back up!

You touching me now?

Sit down, homeboy. Back up,

I'm not gonna tell you again.

You gonna look at my face now, right?

You ain't taking nothing

from me, homeboy!

I will run your ass off the field!

Boy, sit your ass back down.

Don't even worry about it,

I'm gonna see you.

Tell him. Sit his ass down.

Sit your ass down.

Thank you. Let him out of here, man.

That's some bullshit.

Erin?

Erin, this is Brian Gelford.

He teaches Junior English

and the Distinguished Honors Classes.

- Hi. Erin Gruwell. Nice to meet you.

- Hi. Nice to meet you.

- You saw a little action today, I hear.

- Yeah. It happened so fast.

Well, don't be discouraged.

You put your time in, in a few years,

you'll be able to teach juniors.

They're a pleasure.

By then, most of your kids

will be gone anyway.

- What do you mean?

- Well, eventually, they just stop coming.

Well, if I do my job,

they might be lining up at the door.

- Right?

- Yeah.

- Nice pearls.

- Thank you.

If it was up to me,

I wouldn't even be in school.

My probation officer threatened me,

telling me it was either school

or boot camp.

Dumbass.

He thinks that the problems

going on in Long Beach

aren't going to touch me at Wilson.

My PO doesn't understand

that schools are like the city,

and the city is just like a prison,

all of them divided into

separate sections, depending on tribes.

There's Little Cambodia.

The Ghetto.

Wonder Bread Land.

And us,

South of the Border or Little Tijuana.

That's just the way it is,

and everyone knows it.

But soon enough, you have little

wannabes trying to hit you up at school,

demanding respect they haven't earned.

It looks like this, one tribe drifting

quietly to another's territory

without respect,

as if to claim what isn't theirs.

An outsider looking in

would never see it, but we could feel it.

Something was coming.

Settle down.

Let's go over the first name

on the list, Homer.

Homer's The Odyssey.

I know Homer the Simpson.

No, this Homer was an ancient Greek,

but maybe he was bald

just like Homer Simpson.

Okay.

What's up?

Quietly, please.

Mrs. Gruwell,

he just took my damn bag!

Shut up!

Ain't nobody touched your damn bag.

Yeah, I saw you.

Jamal. Jamal. Get her backpack.

I didn't do nothing anyway!

- Jamal. Jamal.

- Okay.

Wait! Wait! Please, stay in your seats!

Wait! Stay in your seats! Please!

Slanty-eyed b*tch!

Rate this script:4.0 / 2 votes

Richard LaGravenese

Richard LaGravenese (born October 30, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film director, best known as the writer of The Fisher King. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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