Teaching Mrs. Tingle - Plot

Plot

Leigh Ann (Katie Holmes) is a high school student who wants to achieve top grades to become valedictorian and leave the town. However, her grade in history class is threatened by her sadistic and thoroughly vindictive teacher, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren). Mrs. Tingle has a special dislike for Leigh Ann and down-grades Leigh Ann's well-designed project. Fellow student Luke (Barry Watson) takes the final exam papers from Mrs. Tingle and makes a copy. He offers Leigh Ann the papers but she insists on refusing to cheat. Ultimately, Luke stashes the papers in Leigh Ann's backpack without her consent. Out of nowhere Mrs. Tingle happens by, discovers the papers in Leigh Ann's backpack, and threatens to expel her for cheating.

Leigh Ann and her two friends, Luke and Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan), head to Mrs. Tingle's house that night and try to convince Mrs. Tingle that Leigh Ann is innocent. Mrs. Tingle, however, does not listen. Luke picks up a loaded crossbow and aims it at Mrs. Tingle, threatening her. A physical struggle ensues, the crossbow goes off, and in the ensuing melee Mrs. Tingle is accidentally knocked unconscious. The students panic and tie Mrs. Tingle to her bed. Regaining consciousness, Mrs. Tingle feigns dizziness and understanding for the prank, and asks to be untied, which Jo Lynn proceeds to do, upon which Mrs. Tingle immediately attacks Jo Lynn and tries to throttle her on the bed. Luke, with loaded crossbow aimed at Mrs. Tingle, convinces her otherwise, and she is retied to her bed.

The next morning Jo Lynn calls the school and impersonates Mrs. Tingle calling in sick in order to buy the trio some time, but all are unsure of what they should do next. Mrs. Tingle eventually reveals that she hates Leigh Ann because Leigh Ann has, unlike herself, the potential to leave their small town and experience life. Mrs. Tingle's romantic self-revelations are incredulous, furthering her captors' disdain of her. Mrs. Tingle plays mind-games with Jo Lynn, planting seeds of jealousy about Leigh Ann's supposed relationship with Luke. Later, she also opines that Leigh Ann does not have the guts to do anything risky that might get her in trouble; in response, an angry and infuriated Leigh Ann kisses Luke and has sex downstairs with him on Mrs. Tingle's couch. Luke and Leigh Ann find Mrs. Tingle's history grade book, and with little persuasion from Luke ('What's right anymore'), decides to cheat changing Mrs. Tingle's grade book. Leigh Ann marks down her rival's, Trudie Tucker (Liz Stauber) top A-grade down to B, and upgrades her own C to an A+.

The next day at school, Jo Lynn ignores Leigh Ann because she had a crush, which Leigh Ann had been aware of, on Luke. A regretful Leigh Ann tries to make amends with Jo Lynn, but an admission that she'd had sex with Luke further infuriates Jo Lynn because of Mrs. Tingle's seeds of jealousy.

Leigh Ann, Luke, and Jo Lynn decide to blackmail Mrs. Tingle by producing photographic evidence of her love affair with the school's gym teacher, Richard Wenchell (Jeffrey Tambor), called 'Spanky' by Mrs. Tingle. Before they can enact their plot, however, Mrs. Tingle escapes from her bonds and, using the loaded crossbow, once again threatens Leigh Ann. After a violent fight she appears to tumble to her death down the staircase, but quickly recovers, scrambles to her feet, and picks up a crossbow. She fires it wildly, trying to hit Leigh Ann. Trudie Tucker walks through the door, gets hit in the chest by the bolt, and appears to be dead just as Principal Potter (Michael McKean) arrives to check up on Mrs. Tingle. Leigh Ann forces Mrs. Tingle to confess everything – that she wanted Leigh Ann to fail, and that she shot Trudie with the bolt, among other things. Meanwhile, Trudie has been protected by a thick textbook she was holding to her chest and is completely unharmed. Mrs. Tingle is fired for the attempted murder of a student, and the final scene of the film shows Leigh Ann being named valedictorian.