Prepare to meet one of the most inspiring leaders you’ll ever see in action. She doesn’t wear a cape, challenge the rulers of her dystopian society, or wield weapons: She’s a high school principal, and a damn fine one.
A trailer has been released for “The Bad Kids,” an award-winning doc filmed at Black Rock Continuation High School, an alternative school in an impoverished Mojave Desert community. As the film’s official synopsis details, students enrolled at the California school have “fallen so far behind in credits that they have no hope of earning a diploma at a traditional high school. Black Rock is their last chance.” And Vonda Viland, the principal of Black Rock, is determined to help them make it count.
The trailer shows Viland personally welcoming students at the door of the school, calling to offer to drive them to school, and holding their hands as they tearfully confide in her. “I can’t fix the home life,” she tells one student. “I can’t fix it.” What Viland can do is offer students dealing with issues such as teen pregnancy, sexual assault, and drug addiction a school environment where they are encouraged, listened to, and made to feel like they matter — where they aren’t just “the bad kids.”
Directed by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, “The Bad Kids” made its World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January. The doc took home a Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking.
Check out the trailer to meet the teens featured in the doc, and to witness the beautiful — and unconventional — graduation ceremony Viland holds for students.
“The Bad Kids” hits theaters December 16 in LA and December 23 in New York.
