PUBLIC PERCEPTION

Imagine a high school where a bizarre love triangle results in a student and school secretary scheduling an after-school fight in the parking lot. And a good-but-troubled student is expelled for telling a classmate she would "be sorry" she rejected his request for a date to the prom. And a teacher enters an affair with a former student -- now a college senior -- so she can live out the ultimate student-teacher fantasy.

All in the same week.

Such was life on the latest episode of "Boston Public," a weekly drama that airs at 7 p.m. Mondays on KBSI, the local FOX television affiliate.

The series, set in Boston, Mass., at the fictitious Winslow High School, is the top Monday night television show among area teen-age viewers and the second-most viewed show in its time slot among viewers 18 to 34, said KBSI general manager Dan Cohen. The station receives periodic ratings data from a national survey company.

Also included in its fan base are a handful of Central High School educators who said they appreciated the show's in-depth examination of issues facing teachers and students in North American public schools.

Relevant stories

"Every week it's something different, a different problem," said physical education teacher Mike Conner. "Quite a few of the stories are relevant to us as teachers."

But not everyone at Central is a fan of the television series.

"I watched 10 minutes of one episode," said social studies teacher Bill Springer. "When I saw a kid spit in the face of a teacher, I said, I'm not watching this mess.'"

Boston public schools communications director Tracey Lynch did not return calls requesting comment Thursday, but Boston teachers were quoted in a Boston Herald article last fall saying they disliked the negative portrayal of their students and peers.

"Not one image in that show is professional," Gary Fisher, a teacher at a Roxbury, Mass., middle school, said in the Oct. 23 article. "Yes, I know it's entertainment, but this entertainment' has a label: Boston Public.'"

The series presents issues like teen-age suicide, student sexuality and the devaluing of education through the eyes of teachers. Although pegged as a drama, the series is laced with comedic moments as its eccentric faculty tries to keep their personal lives private while managing day-to-day interaction with students.

Despite some criticism for its sexual explicitness, violence and lack of respect shown to teachers by students and parents, something about the series keeps Central teachers like Jane Womack tuning in.

"I can relate because I'm a teacher," said Womack, a 36-year social studies teacher. "You can match issues to real-life cases, but nobody's going to see all of that at one time."

Womack said she has first-hand knowledge of many of the experiences teachers on the series have dealt with this year. However, the series often strings together experiences in a single episode that most teachers would be hard pressed to list over the course of their entire careers.

"They are choosing the outrageous," said English teacher Connie Fox. "It's like a soap opera. You just watch it to see how they're going to handle it."

Fox said a student's remark in the latest episode that he was being "suspended for my thoughts" hit at the core of zero-tolerance policies many schools have adopted in the wake of several deadly school shootings. By addressing such timely issues, the television series finds a common thread to which most teachers can relate.

Teacher bonds

The close-knit circle of teachers often portrayed on the series also is common to schools everywhere. Teachers said they often develop bonds with their peers that help them cope with personal problems and rough days on the job.

Sometimes those groups don't get along, they said, but the friction is usually contained in faculty lounges and rarely acted out before students, as often happens on the television series.

Teacher's assistant Dale Smith, who called himself an "interested viewer" of the series, said the show would be more believable if more of its cast members were older than the 20- and 30-something characters they portray. Younger teachers are more common at the elementary level.

"They have more of the X-generation, and they need more baby boomers," Smith said.

But teachers said the random gang violence and frequent firings and rehirings of teachers often portrayed in the series are more in keeping with the workings of urban schools than those in Southeast Missouri. And some of the things that happen at Winslow High School -- like students being allowed to roam school hallways in late evening -- are just plain unrealistic.

"It scares me sometimes," said Cara Williams, a first-year teacher at Central. "It doesn't really show the everyday realities for us, because every week there's something that's hard-core and so dramatic. Most days here aren't like that.".

WANT TO WATCH?

*WHAT: "Boston Public" television show

*WHEN: 7 p.m. Mondays

*WHERE: Local FOX affiliate, KBSI