A popular and beloved teacher, Mr. McMahon, has a heart attack and dies at school. A close friend of the deceased, Principal Harper overcomes his own grief to help his students cope with the loss. To make matters worse, it appears that McMahon had been having an affair with a female senior, Karen Fitzgerald.

While Harper struggles to deal with the incident's aftermath and maintain status quo, the students and faculty begin to fall apart. A defiant pupil, Webster, spits on Lauren and she vows to have him expelled. The case becomes more complex, however, when Harper learns that Webster was close to Mr. McMahon and is extremely upset over his death. A disciplinary hearing is held and it's decided that Webster will only be suspended, much to Lauren's disgust.

Meanwhile, the distraught students hold an assembly to deal with their confusion. The kids quickly embrace God as the answer and their meeting turns into a mass prayer rally.

Eventually, Harper and Guber look into McMahon's alleged af

Sheryl Holt breaks the news about Milton and Lisa's secret affair on her Web site. Suspicious, Harper confronts Buttle about his sexual involvement, but Milton disavows any wrongdoing, claiming that he and Lisa have started a ""Shakespeare Club."" Concerned about his friend, Riley decides to keep quiet for now, but begs Buttle to stop seeing his new ""girlfriend.""

However, Riley has his hands full with another explosive situation - an anonymous bully has severely beaten three male students. When he discovers that the bully is actually an extremely overweight girl who was only defending herself from relentless verbal abuse, he enlists her for the wrestling squad. After enduring further derision, she defeats her opponent at her first match and earns the respect of her teammates and family.

Meanwhile, Marylin suspects that a girl in her class is a victim of incest when the student writes a ""fictional"" essay about her father molesting her. Although her pupil denies it, Marylin alerts Big Boy