Angela Li: Difference between revisions

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==Background and Personality==

Principal Angela Li was head educator at [[Lawndale High]] during the show's five-year run. She never spoke the name "Lawndale High" without affecting a tone of awe and reverence. The character was often portrayed as a self-righteous, iron-fisted tyrant who had very little respect for her students and was constantly using school funds to purchase elaborate security equipment. Indeed, Angela Li has been seen as many as being a parody of school officials who, in the late 1990s, were obsessed with fear of school shootings and compensated with over-the-top security measures (this despite the show's airing before the Columbine High School shootings). Bomb-sniffer dogs, urine tests, and fingerprinting are established facts of life at Lawndale High.

Principal Angela Li was head educator at [[Lawndale High]] during the show's five-year run. She never spoke the name "Lawndale High" without affecting a tone of awe and reverence. The character was often portrayed as a self-righteous, iron-fisted tyrant who had very little respect for her students and was constantly using school funds to purchase elaborate security equipment. Indeed, Angela Li has been seen as many as being a parody of school officials who, in the late 1990s, were obsessed with fear of school shootings and compensated with over-the-top security measures (this despite the show's airing before the Columbine High School shootings). Bomb-sniffer dogs, urine tests, and fingerprinting are established facts of life at Lawndale High. In 2001 she created the Track-Tastic system "which comprehensively cross-references confidential student information, local law-enforcement files, and multiple consumer-spending databases, all while continuously monitoring e-Bay for stun-gun auctions". [http://web.archive.org/web/20010809094531/www.mtv.com/mtv/tubescan/animation/daria/lhs/greeting.html]

Despite her obsession with school security when it comes to crime and disorder, Ms Li is completely willing to ignore lack of safety over maintenance issues ("[[Fair Enough]]"); and she's annoyed that [[Helen Morgendorffer]] reveals [[Ken Edwards]] a substitute teacher was sexually harrassing students, as this means she's in "a fix" by having to find a new teacher. She is also unconcerned with any damage done to the school's ability to educate by her actions or penny-pinching, in "[[Fizz Ed]]" only being bothered by the budget squeeze when it affected the football team.