| Riverdale High School | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Archie Comics |
| In story information | |
| Type | School |
In the fictional realm of Archie Comics, Riverdale High School is the local educational institution of Riverdale. Its walls sport a blue and green colour. There is a school newspaper called The Blue and Gold.
Riverdale High is based on what was Haverhill High School in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The building still stands although is now Haverhill's City Hall. Archie cartoonist Bob Montana attended Haverhill High from 1936-1939 and drew on his experiences there in drawing the comic.
Staff
Only a few of Riverdale High's staff appear regularly in the comics. Others have appeared for short periods or sporadically over the years, particularly in the 1970s, and late 1980s through early 1990s.
Office
The office staff includes the principal, vice-principals, secretaries and counsellors who run the school and attempt (generally with little success) to manage the student population.
Mr. Waldo Weatherbee - Principal
Mr. Weatherbee is sometimes playfully called The Bee. He is a somewhat heavyset man with tiny round glasses perched on the tip of an aquilline nose and a tiny wisp of a toupee that perpetually flies off whenever he is upset or startled. His birthday is April 5. His first appearance was in Pep Comics #27 of March, 1942.
He is pompous, short-tempered and particularly easily annoyed by Archie, so he tries to stay away from him. However, ironically, even in the summer months he can't get away from him, as he also serves as head of the camp where the Riverdale teens serve as junior counselors. He constantly dreams of the day when (or if) Archie graduates from high school. He regularly sends him, Reggie and/or Jughead to detention.
Mr. Weatherbee is a former member of the military with front-line combat experience, though due to the stories' "sliding time scale" and the magProxy-Connection: keep-alive of retconning exactly what duty in which war varies over time — initially he was said to have been a Marine, a veteran of the World War II Battle of the Bulge, and more recently a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. (He is also referred to has having been in World War I, since in an old story he sings "Over There.")
He is perpetually in his mid-60s and close to retirement, a fact which occasionally features in some stories. In one story, Mr. Weatherbee's motorcycle riding mother visits the school. She refers to him as "Willy".
Mr. Herkimer Hassle - Superintendent of schools
The superintendent of the Riverdale school board, who is often not impressed with Mr. Weatherbee. In some stories, when he comes to inspect the school, he is impressed with some of the things Archie and the gang does, despite Mr. Weatherbee thinking their antics will ruin the inspection.
Miss Phlips - Secretary
Miss Phlips is a slim thirtyish lady with short black hair. She is the school's administrative assistant, Mr. Weatherbee's girl Friday and acts as a buffer between office, staff and students. She still appears in the odd story and also appeared in Tales from Riverdale #1. She has not been around as long as many other well-known faculty members. She is portrayed as a young, attractive woman, unlike aging faculty members like Miss Grundy, Miss Beazley, Miss Haggly and other aging faculty members who have looked old since the early years of Archie Comics. Notably, her name is spelled "Phlips" with one "i", instead of her having the common last name "Philips".
Mr. Ramon Rodriguez - Vice Principal
Mr. Rodriguez' initials earned him the affectionate nickname of "Choo-Choo". His daughter Maria also attends Riverdale High. He is apparently a famous artist, as dictated in one Archie story that he is "the" Ramon Rodriguez. He was primarily seen in stories from the 1970s-1980s.
Mr. Patton Howitzer - Vice Principal
Appeared from the mid-1980s into the 1990s. He is a retired Marine drill instructor who tries to conform the students (and the faculty!) to his military frame of mind, with limited success. In his first appearance, he temporarily filled in for Mr. Weatherbee as principal (in the story Boot Camp high), turning Riverdale High into a virtual boot camp. After Mr. Weatherbee returned, Howitzer stayed on as vice-principal, although he has toned down his disciplinary manner somewhat. He has all but disappeared from view in recent years (a recent appearance in Tales from Riverdale #1 indicated that he was still tough on the students.)
Mr. Jenkins - Guidance counselor
Mr. Jenkins, an old man, was the counselor at Riverdale high before Mr. Grimley. He got replaced by Mr. Grimley because Mr. Jenkins ended up suffering from a nervous breakdown. Mr. Jenkins is currently in the hospital and seems to be responding well to treatment.
Mr. Grimley - Guidance counselor
Mr. Grimley often suffered severe ulcers after hearing the Riverdale students' outlandish career plans. He did not stay at Riverdale very long, for obvious reasons. At some point, he appearently switched to teaching Driver's Education, but found it caused him the same problems.
Ms. Burble - Guidance counselor
The most recent counselor at Riverdale High. Like her predecessors, this African-American woman is bothered by the students' silly career ideas, but always manages to keep her cool about it, and it never effects her health. Originally called Miss Burble, but in Tales of Riverdale #1, she was called Mrs. Burble, implying that she has since married.
Academic
The teachers at Riverdale have covered most subjects over the years, but only a few have been in the story spotlight very often.
Miss Grundy - English and occasionally Mathematics teacher
Miss Grundy is the homeroom teacher for Archie's Gang. She is a tall lady with white hair tied in a bun. Her birthday is March 30. She first appeared in Pep Comics #30 in August 1942. She initially was drawn as a much older woman, often with a single tooth in the front upper part of her mouth, though she seems to have been de-aged over the years to simply a senior-age woman.
She regularly wears frumpy shapeless dresses (which, in one story, she ruefully admitted were form-fitting) and is often referred to as an archetype of the prudish and conventional. Before she became a teacher she was working for the Pickle Factory as a factory worker.
Despite occasional grumblings from her students, they seem to genuinely like and admire her. She in return tends to drive them hard, pushing Archie Andrews and Moose Mason in particular, but remains quite fond of her students.
Mr. Flutesnoot - Chemistry teacher
Mr. Benjamin Flutesnoot is skinny, nervous, and ageing with a fringe of white hair. He also has an extremely prominent nose -- hence his name. His birthday is April 7.
Although to a lesser level than Hiram Lodge or Mr. Weatherbee, he is sometimes the victim of Archie's ever-present accidents (such as when Archie blows up the school's chemistry lab). Also by accident or as a prank his science class projects will occasionally result in apparent breakthroughs that ultimately lead to embarrassment. In more serious moments, he has devoted class time to such topical issues as smoking; in this story fire engines appeared at Riverdale High as Archie, who saw smoke in the boys' room, turned in a fire alarm. As it happened, three boys who had a pack-a-day habit were lighting up in the restroom. When they found out the "Bee" was on to them, they quickly confessed.
Mr. Elmer Fluteweed (or Mr. Philo Fluteweed) - Music teacher
Mr. Fluteweed seems to have been an early version of Mr. Flutesnoot and as such has not appeared in many years - this ambiguity makes giving a definitive first appearance impossible. He has mainly appeared in the Little Archie universe.
Miss Haggly - History teacher
Probably the oldest teacher at Riverdale (students say she teaches history because she's seen so much of it). She is white-haired, portly and shrivelled in appearance, nonetheless she is occasionally surprisingly hip, though more often her old-fashioned view of events is the core of a joke. She is seen more often in the daily newspaper strips. Some students told Miss Haggly they wanted to see the development of a mass-transit vehicle that moved people quickly and efficiently and was non-polluting. She showed then a picture of herself, taken with such a vehicle--in 1925--an old-fashioned streetcar.
For a time, she appeared to be one of the main members of the faculty, being around since the early days, but, as of the 1990s, she began appearing less and less frequently. She has not, however, been officially dropped from the comics. She was recently featured in Betty and Veronica Spectacular # 71
Mr. Malcolm Meeks - Substitute teacher
A timid substitute teacher at Riverdale in the 1980s, Malcolm Meeks eventually revealed that his timorous nature was the result of his frustration of being unable to save a comrade when he served in the Vietnam War. Finally Meeks found peace with himself when he saved the victims of a helicopter crash, and took a full-time teaching job at the nearby Tri-City College Preparatory High School. He was just minutes away from the local airport where he would spend his after school hours investigating the wonders of flight. Someday, he mused, he would fly with the local Blue Eagles Team and touch the sky and go beyond the limits of the clouds. Like many characters, he disappeared from view. It is revealed in a later comic that he has moved to Central High to teach.
Miss Crouton - Home Economics teacher
Primarily seen in the early 1990s. She was recently featured in Betty and Veronica Spectacular # 71 and on the cover of Archie # 565
Mr. Kroskut - Shop teacher
Mr. Kroskut (sometimes referred to as "Mr Wood") is a surly, sarcastic shop teacher with a perpetual scowl on his chiseled face. He hasn't been seen since the 1980s.
Mr. Adams
A humanities teacher at Riverdale High who first appeared in Archie & Friends #117. He is an internationalist, and believes travel abroad is educational. In his first year at Riverdale High, he was able to organize a five-city European & African trip for Riverdale students (including Archie and the gang). Mr. Adams is African-American.
Other Teachers
- Miss Simkins - Math teacher
- Only occasionally seen
- Ms. Shapely - attractive Substitute Teacher (1970's-80's)
- Ms. Samantha Lovett - Drama teacher
- Briefly seen in 1987
- Ms. Kandinsky - Art teacher
- Primarily seen in the early 1990s
- Mr. Flores - Computer Science teacher
- Primarily seen in the early 1990s
- Mr. Jordan - Shop teacher
- Mr. Jordan , an old man, was recently featured in a reprint in Archie's Double Digest #176 as a shop teacher
- Mr. Monet: Art Teacher
Athletic
The school athletics department includes the physical education teachers and coaches of intramural team sports, track & field, and cheerleading. Their colors are blue and gold, and their mascot is the bulldogs.
Coach Kleats - head coach
Coach Kleats is somewhat overweight — atypical for a gym teacher — and is often afraid that he has grown too old for the job, particularly in contrast to his friend and fellow gym teacher, the trim Coach Clayton. However, it has been revealed that Kleats was once a fantastic athlete, and can still beat the boys in a game of one-on-one basketball. He also has an encyclopaedic knowledge of baseball and football. He first appeared in Pep Comics #24. Like most of the faculty, he also worked at the pickle factory as a wart snipper.
He has a constant problem in getting the athletic best out of his students. He always tries his best to get Archie and Reggie's minds off girls, but rarely succeeds for long. He often gets undesired advice from Mr. Weatherbee on how to turn his losing teams around. In one story, it is revealed that he has arthritis in his hand. He thought that it would mean the end of his career as an athletic coach, but Archie helped him realize that his ability to teach is what really counts.
Coach Clayton - assistant coach
Coach Clayton is an African American physical education teacher who believes in practicing and experimenting with various methods for teaching students. He coaches the school's basketball and wrestling teams. He first appeared in Archie at Riverdale High #14.
He is very open and warm, which has led many in the student body to seek out his advice as well as tell him about their problems. Unlike his fellow phys-ed teacher Coach Kleats, he is in excellent physical condition -- although both men are very good athletes. His son, Chuck Clayton, attends Riverdale. Coach Clayton mainly appears as a basketball and wrestling coach. In the late 1990s, he began teaching a history class on the side.
Patti Pacer - Gym teacher
- Patti Pacer is the Girl's Athletics coach and faculty sponsor for the cheerleading squad. She was noted for pushing the team and holding grueling practices which won them a competition. She appeared in 1988 but has rarely been seen since.
Greta Grappler - Gym teacher
- Rarely appearing, she is a tough and aggressive coach for the girls' teams, and has a bulky, muscular build.
Support
The school's support staff are the school nurse, librarian, cafeteria workers and custodians.
Miss Bernice Beazly - Cafeteria
Miss Bernice Beazly is the school's cafeteria chef. She is unkempt, surly, loud, sarcastic and no nonsense. However, she is also portrayed as being a softie, with a (deeply buried) heart-of-gold, especially toward the school custodian, Mr. Svenson. Her birthday is September 1.
In a stereotype of high school cafeterias, Miss Beazley is portrayed as an awful cook (although she sometimes makes good or even delicious food, and Jughead Jones enjoys her cooking) who is quite curt and outspoken, even to Mr. Weatherbee who most people fear. She prides herself on providing a hot well-balanced meal to the students - she sees no need to worry as to whether it is edible. Behind her back kids, and even Mr. Weatherbee, will constantly talk about her "exotic" dishes and how they taste like rubber or glue, but they know better than to criticize if she can hear them. She frequently fights with Mr. Weatherbee, but the students stand by her — especially Jughead. On one occasion, she enlisted the help of Archie and Jughead in handling cafeteria supplies--and they came away with new respect for her. And when a rainstorm threatened to flood Riverdale and crews were building levees along the river, she was right there, providing the workers with hot meals.
Mr. Svenson - Custodian
Mr. Svenson (sometimes spelled "Mr. Svensen") is an older Swedish man with a large moustache.. His birthday is June 21. He first appeared in Archies Jokebook #35. His favourite phrase is "By Yiminy!".
Svenson is bashful and speaks with a thick accent that is often hard for Archie and the gang to understand. He is extremely hard-working and happy in his job (despite numerous frustrations), and although they don't always show it, he is widely admired by the students. He is quite friendly with the cafeteria chef Miss Beazly. He isn't the most brilliant, but is very practical in his approach to problems and life in general.
Mr. Johnson, an earlier janitor may have evolved into him. He too was an aging man with little white hair and a moustache, but had a tidier overall appearance.
Miniseries
The Faculty Funnies miniseries debuted in 1989 under its own title. Mr. Weatherbee, Mr. Flutesnoot, Miss Grundy and Coach Clayton were secretly superheroes, called The Awesome Foursome, who all possessed super powers when they took a peek at Archie's science project (in this series Clayton was referred to as Harry even though he's been called Floyd many times by faculty in regular digest stories). The series lasted for 5 issues and ended with the Awesome Foursome losing their powers after putting out a chemical fire.[1]
Riverdale High was a series that stemmed from Archie at Riverdale High. The content in Riverdale High was not limited to comics but also included interactive sections that asked readers to send in information about their own schools and featured a "School of the Month" that would be included in the comics and on the cover. The stories were more poignant and revolved around the faculty at Riverdale High School and its interactions with the student body during and after school hours. Riverdale High ended when Archie Comics decided to refocus its publications on the core series.[2]
Notable Students
- Archie Andrews
- Chuck Clayton
- Betty Cooper
- Dilton Doiley
- "Jughead" Jones
- Midge Klump
- Veronica Lodge
- Reggie Mantle
- "Moose" Mason
"Big" Ethel Muggs - Maria Rodriguez
- Frankie Valdez
- Nancy Woods
Rival Schools
Central High
- The school's main scholastic and athletic rival is Central High School.
- Central High seems to consist of nothing but villainous types. The males are generally thuggish, conniving brutes, and the females are usually lecherous, scheming vamps. In most of their encounters, Central students seldom compete without using unsportsmanlike conduct, if not out-and-out cheating. The coaches and teachers often are not only aware of this skullduggery, but often encourage it. In most cases, Central's team colors are bright red and silver-white, contrasting Riverdale's blue and gold.
Pembrooke Academy
- Pembrooke Academy is a private school in Riverdale's suburb catering to the snobbish and wealthy.
- Pembrooke is the school of Cheryl and Jason Blossom and their snobbish friends Bunny and Cedric. They look down on Riverdale students as "townies" and will not (except for the Blossom twins) willingly associate with them. When they must interact they will do whatever it takes to humiliate and defeat their rivals.
Other schools that have been featured as Riverdale rival schools include Hadley High and Southside High.
Notes
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