School system of The Wire

The school system of The Wire is a fictional education system in the city of Baltimore depicted in the HBO drama series The Wire. The fourth season of the show introduced an examination of the Baltimore city school system and many new characters including pupils, staff and education board employees.

Colvin was a thirty-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department and a district commander before his radical policies caused his forced retirement. He moved into working with potential repeat violent offenders in the school system.

Marcia Donnelly is the Assistant Principal of Edward J. Tilghman Middle School. She is a disciplinary, no-nonsense person whom the students have learned to obey. A veteran administrator, Mrs. Donnelly has become used to the chaotic environment of the school, but she often feels frustrated with the difficulty of keeping order among the children and retaining teachers from year to year. Donnelly is world-weary to the point where she sees an in-school stabbing victim being HIV-negative as a silver lining. She performs sweeps of the school grounds looking for concealed weapons on a regular basis.

Donnelly employs Dennis "Cutty" Wise — ostensibly as a custodian — to perform the duties of a truant officer. By forcing truants to attend one day in September and another in October, the school secures more funding. Cutty eventually returns to her to resign the post because he expected to be doing something more rewarding. She works with Howard "Bunny" Colvin in setting up an initiative to separate students into two groups to improve discipline. She urges Colvin to protect Principal Withers from the consequences of dividing the students, because he has gone out on a limb to support the initiative. She selects the students for the program with input from her colleague Grace Sampson.

Donnelly meets with Bubbles and allows his young assistant Sherrod to enroll in the school. She insists that Sherrod is socially promoted to the eighth grade because of his age. She tells Bubbles that he cannot be allowed to return to the last grade he attended because of the difficulties it would present regarding classroom discipline and funding. She is supportive of impoverished student Duquan "Dukie" Weems and sends clothes home for him via his classmate Crystal Judkins.

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