Stand Part 2

So I was right about the tragedy and the ultimate success of the students however the tragedy did not take form of a death as I had predicted. Early in the second half you see Mr. Escalante doing what Mr. Escalante does, pushing everything (himself included) too far. He is now working through all his breaks, through all his vacations, and through all his weekends! It seems he has taking on trying to save the whole school by himself! He then goes as far as to take on another task, teaching English night classes to adults. During one of these night classes his body finally said enough and he suffered a mild heart attack. This is where I thought maybe the tragic death would come in but no, Mr. Escalante survives his ordeal but must take time off and so the students are stuck with a sub 2 weeks before the AP exam. To make matters worse the sub they get is a music teacher who has never even tried to teach math before let alone calculus. All is lost! Right? Well no, Mr. Escalante ignores his doctor’s orders and goes back to work early so he can do some last minute drilling with the students.

The Day of the test is upon us and the students are pumped up from their last minute cram session with Mr. Escalante. After the test they all go out to the beach to confidently celebrate their hard work and success. The class has almost become a family at this point with all the time they have spent together. Then the good news comes, every single student in the class passed the AP exam and Mr. Escalante is awarded a plaque for all his hard work and determination.

This happy moment is short lived however as the foretold tragedy finally rears its ugly head. After reviewing the tests the ETS (Educational Testing Services) determined that the students must have cheated because all the students made the same mistakes they also did better than the rest of the more privileged schools and took less time to do it. This hits the students hard and they react very badly, quickly starting to revert to their former angry and not wanting to try selves. Angel tries to get himself arrested and the "family" the class had become breaks. They all begin to self-destruct  do to the fact that despite how hard they tried and how well they did people wouldn’t accept it from them and still tried to shut them out with accusations. Fortunately the students don't fallow this path to long and realize despite this ordeal they still earned those scores, they were still able to learn. The ETS Drills and drills the students trying to force a confession out of them, but no one cheated so no one will fess up to it. Other teachers think the kids must have cheated too and eyes are starting to look towards Mr. Escalante himself. Finally Mr. E decides to get the kids to take a retest to prove their scores. Mr. E warns his students that it won’t be easy and the ETS will be looking for any excuse to call them cheaters. He is convinced it is a race and social status issue. The kids do very well on the retest and all 18 of them pass it again setting a precedent for future generations at Garfield high. Because of the model that their success set by 1987 there were 87 students who passed the AP test at Garfield high!