Ms. Morris

Ms. Morris
First appearance	See Jane Run
Last appearance	Life in the Past Lane
Voiced by	Katie Kingston
Episode count	3 (one non-speaking)
Information
Gender	Female
Age
Occupation	Phys-ed teacher; track team coach; possibly also Cheerleading coach
Family
Significant other(s)

Ms. Morris is the girls' physical-education teacher at Lawndale High. She coaches the track team and is (as it appears) the cheerleading coach. Morris' major appearance is in "See Jane Run", when Jane surprisingly joins the track team.

Appearances and characterization

Morris appears in the episode "See Jane Run" and has two photos in "The Daria Database". She has non-speaking appearances in "Lucky Strike" and "Life in the Past Lane".

Morris has been at Lawndale High for over a decade, and taught Penny Lane and Summer Lane before her. She has contempt for both girls and the Lane's in general, and deliberately targeted Penny when she was teaching her: "I taught her a thing or two about the American competitive spirit." which prompted Jane to reply "You sure did. That's why she's spent the last ten years out of the country."

A typical class, from "The Daria Database"

Morris was openly corrupt, turning phys-ed into covert cheerleading practice and fudging grades for athletes. Prior to the start of the series, she had taught Jane's two older sisters and viewed the whole family as shiftless slackers. This motivated Jane to join the track team and prove her wrong. When Jane turned out to be good, Morris immediately started backing her and doing her favours. When Jane quit, Morris tried to blackmail her into rejoining the team by threatening to deliberately flunk her in Math, though she was forced to back off when Jane threatened to reveal it to the media. (Morris had already stated both Angela Li and the PTA were aware of the threat)

"Database" has a photo of a typical lesson: the entire class are half-dead on the floor, and Morris is walking past them with a satisfied expression. A photo of the Lawndale High staff room has her blowing her whistle to try and break up Janet Barch's beating of Anthony DeMartino.

She would later join the school's union strike in "Lucky Strike", and go on to watch Charles Ruttheimer III seemingly dying at his magic act with amusement in "Life in the Past Lane".

Morris also appears in Daria's Inferno where she offers her whistle, to keep the football players and cheerleaders at bay in Lawndale High.

Morris in Fanfiction

Morris has often been portrayed in a negative light in fanfiction, in tune with her antagonistic portrayal in See Jane Run.

Notable appearances:

"Do you think you can be all that you can be?"

• Ring of Champions, of the the John Lane series, by Richard Lobinske.

• See Jane Spike by The Angst Guy, where she's a tyrannical figure of terror forcing the characters into a volleyball game.

• Morris appeared in Big Sister's Great Adventure by Wouter Jaegers where she's put in a much friendlier light, joking around with Mack about still beating the track team and Cheerleaders into shape before wishing him happy holydays and remarking how pleasant it was to see him again. She also appears earlier in the story as Rachel Landon signs up for the Cheerleading squad.

• Ms. Morris also appeared in Wouter Jaegers' Keeping Track of Fantasies, in a flashback of her verbal battle against Jane. And as Evan's lover in a not so pleasant figment of Jane's imagination.

• Liliane Grenier has depicted Penny Lane in Ms. Morris' gym class