Principal Wertz

Principal Wertz is Bartlett High School’s principal and an offstage force in the events surrounding Theodore Finch’s week-long absence. He is shown through administrative decisions and brief appearances rather than through private motives or a developed personal history; his authority is felt in the school’s control of its gossip and in the consequences of students leaving class.

Identity and Role

Wertz’s clearest action is shutting down the Bartlett Dirt after discovering it. The publication’s demise becomes a subject of student chatter, and rumors about Finch circulate instead through whispers and texts. The account links Wertz’s intervention to this shift in how information travels, though it does not disclose what he learned about the publication or what steps he took beyond closing it.

Actions at School

During a fire alarm in third period, Wertz is outside with teachers and faculty, speaking loudly into his phone as Finch asks Violet to meet him in the student parking lot. Violet runs after Finch, and neither is stopped in the moment. Her departure, however, lasts beyond the alarm: she misses the rest of the school day, including her fourth-through-seventh-period classes.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

That evening, Violet’s parents question her at home. She understands that Wertz apparently called her mother after she failed to return to class. The call is presented as Violet’s inference, not as a confirmed conversation, but it shows how the school’s attendance oversight reaches beyond its grounds and into her family life. Wertz’s limited appearances thus connect institutional authority to two contrasting forms of circulation: the silencing of a student publication and the reporting of a student’s absence.