A high school teacher, tries to help a repressed, confused and scared, male student deal with homosexual feelings, but when the student uncovers the teacher's own secret, things take a dangerous turn.

SYNOPSIS:

This is a drama set in a public, inner city high school, where we get to witness the sadness of these teenagers’ lives, as they struggle with their emerging identities in a world shaped by poverty, absent parents, illness, ignorance, hopelessness, and their devoted English teacher, who's own private life is a turmoil, filled many of the scars his students share.

The central character, JOHN FLANAGAN (30s) is a devoted, English teacher, who ably represents that very special breed of teachers who have faith in their students when no one else does. John, is totally vested in his students academic success, but more importantly, he’s goal is to equipped his students with a moral compass that will hopefully make them realize how their negative, hurtful actions towards others, have permanent, lasting effects on the lives of their victims, as he is a victim himself.

It’s the first day of classes and John realizes he’ll be facing great challenges with these group of students, as they start the day by attacking one another verbally. John, acts quickly, by giving his students a task that he knows will open their hearts and minds. He tells them to get a small piece of wood, plus fives nails and for five acts of unkindness or disrespect they’ve done or do to other persons, they must put a nail into the wood, then they must go back to the persons they’ve hurt, ask for true forgiveness and remove the nails. After the Thanksgiving break they’ll be told the purpose of the exercise. The good teacher, also gives his students a soul searching essay assignment where they will write about their goals, struggles, fears or a painful passed experience. John’s English class ride an emotional roller coaster during the months that we follow their progress, and he soon realizes that four students in particular are enslaved by fear, hatred, sickness, inner rage, intolerant parents and hopelessness. They need saving now, but in the process, the teacher himself, falls victim to one these four.

As they write their essays we enter the chaotic, painful and wounded lives of these four students: JEROME - a fatherless, black teen, from the projects. ALEX - Also from the projects, lives with alcoholic mother, antagonistic, bully. GINA - innocent, strict religious parents, falls victim to Alex trying to save him from himself. ANGEL - sexually molested by an uncle at age seven, confused, afraid of his homosexual feelings.

There are plenty of confrontations between John and Alex, due to Alex’s constant, antagonistic behavior and outbursts of disrespect towards other classmates. Alex, constantly calling Angel a sissy boy and faggot. Getting to Alex's heart, becomes one of John's biggest challenge. Very soon, John Flanagan and his students lives will be tested as their lives become entwined in a web of pain, fear, betrayal, secrets, misconceptions, attempted murder and teen suicide.

Painful lessons will be learned in Mr. John Flanagan's class, as these students ultimately must face and accept responsibility for their actions and realize that those actions have consequences: they leave permanent wounds in the hearts of their victims, far more detrimental than what they ever imagined, and an innocent life will be lost and others will be affected.

It happens one night when Angel's father catches him masturbating to gay pornographic material. He gets bit up and told my his tyrant father who tells, "I rather see you dead than a faggot!" Angel runs to his teacher's home and catches him kissing with another man, through a large living room window. The confused and angry teenager runs back home and the next morning, before anyone is up, he takes his father's gun and goes to school where he waits for John Flanagan to arrive, then he enters the school, shots a guard, rushes upstairs and after an exchange of words in an attempt to free his teacher from his shame and himself, shoots the teacher gravely injuring, then blows his brains off. What follows is the teacher fighting for his life, his sanity, reputation and career. But in the end thanks to his owns students from passed and present rallying and Angel's own diary, John is cleared of any wrong doing, he goes back to class and through the wood task  his students realized that their actions have permanent consequences. The scars on the wood left by the infliction of pain proofs it to all them and  their tears of remorse tells him that they've  finally developed a moral compass, something that he so hard was trying to teach them since the first day of class. John's happy and he also came to terms that his own father would never accept him for being gay and that's okay. John's passion has always been teaching plus making a difference in the lives of every student,  he has succeeded once again, even if one student, who was himself as a teenager once, lost his life due to an intolerant parent, bully classmates and scars from his childhood that he was never able to overcome. Yet in the end, Angel found his peace.

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