[BOYS SPEAKING QUIETLY] Don't look at her. Just pretend we're talking...
Here she comes!
[BOY BANGS SIDE OF CAR WITH HAND]
BOYS: Miss! Stop the car. Miss! Stop the car Miss.
- Fuckin' Jonah, Miss. - Miss, look what you've done. Look!
Miss, you killed him. MISS: Are you alright?
- Miss, call an ambulance. [ALL SHOUTING]
Jonah, get up!
Ah, Miss, you got punk'd! We punk'd you. [CHEERING, CLAPPING]
Sucked in, Miss.
You boys will all be seeing Miss Murray today.
And this is not funny. Now get out of the way.
It was a joke, Miss. Can't you take a joke?
You got your period or what, Miss?
MISS: Out of the way!
JONAH: It was one of our best ever, boys!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
JONAH: Watch out.
In addition to the other ones.
Oh look, it's the Islander boys, late again. Why is it always you lot?
My leg hurts, Miss. It took me ages to get here.
Oh Jonah, it was the other leg yesterday.
Could you make up your mind please? JONAH: Bullshit!
JONAH: It wasn't. Ask him if you don't believe me. I hurt it kicking the wall.
JONAH (interview): People always say I'm disruptive...
- Miss, I don't want to sit next to Troy. He's a homo. MISS: Sit next to Troy!
JONAH (interview): ...but they don't even know that I'm just trying to make things
more fun and more interactive.
[LOUD TAPPING SOUND]
JONAH (interview): Kids in the class don't even care because they're doing their work
and they're concentrating and it's boring and all of a sudden they get a joke
and they just get a little break from their work and they get to laugh.
So if that's being disruptive then 'fuck you'.
That's not disruptive, that's entertainment.
JONAH: I'm just getting the worksheet Miss. Let me do some work for once.
MISS: Do it quietly thank you.
JONAH: I'm doing it quietly.
There you go, Homo.
MISS: Don't use... Jonah, do not use that word in this class thank you.
Why not? It's an English word. This is an English class isn't it?
DOUG (welfare teacher): Jonah now has a contract.
I got Jonah to come up with a list of promises
that he thought he could fulfil
in areas where he felt that he could make an improvement in himself.
So we've got behavioural promises and academic objectives
and it works remarakably well. MISS: No no no no. Sit down!
I just want to sit next to Leon. I'll learn more.
MISS: Sit over there, now!
Puck you, Miss.
Beg your pardon!?
I said 'puck you', with a 'p'.
Don't you even know how to spell, Miss? MISS: I know what you meant.
JONAH (interview): I have to do all the work required in class and respect all teachers.
JONAH: I like what you're wearing, Miss.
Looks nice on you. Is that from Sussan's?
Jonah, what does your contract say about talking in class?
DOUG: It gives him a boundary.
See, he knows when he stepped outside of the rules because he made the rules.
MISS: Jonah, cap off, balls on the ground now!
Okay Miss.
MISS: What are you doing?
You said put my balls on the ground... MISS: Get up off the ground. Get up.
But my balls are on the ground Miss, look. [LAUGHTER]
Get up off the ground. JONAH: Stop molesting my arm.
I am not...
It's his own authority that he created, you know.
He's not letting anybody else down except himself.
Excuse me class, I'm looking for two strong boys for 10 minutes to help me move some stuff.
Sir, sir, pick me. Pick me sir, please. Please, Please.
DOUG: Troy and Cameron.
JONAH: Puck you, Sir.
Excuse me Jonah?
I said 'puck you' Sir.
Well Jonah, you're going to have to go and sit outside Miss Murray's office.
Why, Sir?
And you've broken your contract. Well done.
DOUG: I organise various programs. This one is directed towards our Islander kids
and I've called it Polynesian Pathways.
Okay, hurry in, everybody get a seat.
DOUG (interview): We're offering alternate pathways in life for the Islander kids
to help steer them away from the deadly spiral of unemployment,
crime and drug abuse.
JONAH: You got a girl one. Joseph got a girl one.
DOUG: Jonah's responding, you know, very well.
He's sort of relishing the opportunity of displaying his traditional culture.
JONAH: I'm not wearin this shit in front of anyone, Sir.
I fuckin' hate Polynesian Pathways.
It's fucked up. They make you dance like a homo.
And we have to do this performance in assembly.
LUKE: You two stop pissing around.
I'm not pissing. He keeps trying....
JONAH: I fuckin' hate it.
DOUG: We've got a special guest speaker today.
Now, Luke is Samoan and he has been in gaol.
LUKE: If you fuck up in school you're gonna fuck up in life. That's fucked.
JONAH: Were there girls in your gaol? [LAUGHTER]
You're going to end up being my girl in a minute.
[TRADITIONAL MUSIC]
DOUG: There's career options, anger issues, development stuff....
DOUG: Man boobs.
What are they? Where do they come from?
DOUG: ...and a strand on modern music and hip hop.
JONAH SINGING HIP HOP STYLE: We are Tongan. Come from the islands.
Respect your culture ... mother fucker.
DOUG: This is a chance for them to celebrate their culture
and also to show them that we celebrate their culture.
So when is this shit over?
JOSEPH: Gumnut Cottage.
It's a little place where you go to learn how to read and crap.
For remedial reading.
THOMAS: People who have no nuts usually go there.
JOSEPH: Call it gumnut no nuts because if you go there it means you've got no nuts.
Jonah and Leon go there.
JONAH: He goes there. Leon goes there. I don't go there.
LEON: I don't go there. JOSEPH: Yous both go there.
JONAH: Bullshit! I don't fuckin' go there. Your mum goes there.
Shut up.
LEON: I saw you last time there.
I don't fuckin' go to Gumnut Cottage.
JAN (teacher): Jonah attends Gumnut Cottage 5 periods a week for remedial reading.
Jared felt what with Jane?
Oh, Miss Miss Miss Miss Miss.
Okay, Jonah.
Pissed off?
No.
JAN (interview): One of the goals that Jonah has written into his
Polynesian Pathways contract
is that he wants to be able to learn to read
by the end of the year...
JAN: How many? - 2.5 Miss
JAN: And at the moment he is reading at about an 8 year old level,
which, that's not unusual, particularly for boys.
JAN: Sound it out. JONAH: C...
JAN: S...Cir... JONAH: Surfing.
JAN: No, cir...cus. JONAH: It starts with a fuckin' C.
JAN: Yeah, 's'.
JONAH: Reading is the main thing I want to do in my contract
because if I could learn to read then I could read books all day. I could just...
I could read like, Harry Potter in a day.
JAN: What might you find at a circus? The eleph.... Yeah, come on.
JONAH: Clowns! JAN: What's that word?
I dunno.
JAN: Okay, so sound it out. JONAH: I don't wanna sound it out.
JAN: I want you to sound it out. JONAH: Maybe I don't want to.
Well that's what we're doing at the moment, we're reading.
JONAH: Too slow. You're too slow.
JAN (interview): Jonah's quite erratic in his approach.
He's all enthusiasm and all guns blazing one minute,
and then the next minute he can snap and I'm the worst person in the world
and it's "fuck this" and "fuck that".
JONAH: It's bullshit children's book! I don't feel like I want to read it anyway.
JAN (interview): That's the intriquing thing about Jonah and you know,
it's the thing that I love about Jonah too; you never know what you're going to get.
JONAH: Why don't you fuckin' kill yourself you bitch!
JONAH (interview): Miss Palmer's alright.
She's one of the maddest teachers in the whole school.
She's better than any other teacher here.
JAN: Jared was .... JONAH: Wanking.
JAN: Pardon? JONAH: Wanking?
JONAH (interview): Sometimes I give her electric shocks.
Like you do the old feet on the ground like this, like that,
and then when Miss goes past I go, "Miss" and touch her
and it gives her an electric shock and she just laughs at me.
JAN: Silently means quietly.
- Silently means stop talking, Miss - Exactly.
JONAH (interview): She's got a good sense of humour but she appreciates me.
JAN (interview): I think Jonah really really does want to learn
and ah, he really wants to be able to learn to read.
JONAH: Miss! Miss! Look at this. Look.
It's better on the mat, Miss. I'll show you at lunch.
- Okay. - See ya, Miss.
- See ya. - Come find me at the amphitheatre.
JAN: How do you spell amphitheatre?
I'm out of the room Miss, I'm not spelling. Sucked into you.
See ya, Miss.