Principal Duvall

Principal Duvall is the administrator of North Shore High School, a figure whose authority moves between comic awkwardness and decisive intervention. He introduces Cady Heron to the school, investigates the Burn Book, and responds to the girls’ ensuing upheaval by calling an emergency assembly and demanding that they address how they treat one another. At the Spring Fling, he oversees the announcement that Cady is queen, then watches her break the crown and share it with Gretchen Wieners and Janis Ian.

Identity and Introduction

Duvall first appears at the classroom doorway during an uncomfortable moment for Ms. Norbury, who is struggling to remove a wet sweater. His puzzled presence makes him part of the classroom’s awkward spectacle before he turns to his official purpose: welcoming a new student. He tells the class that she has moved from Africa, prompting Ms. Norbury to identify a tall, dark-skinned girl; the student corrects her, saying she is from Michigan. The exchange establishes Duvall’s slightly hapless manner and the gap between the adults’ assumptions and Cady’s actual background.

With a note card in hand, Duvall mispronounces Cady’s name as “Cad-dee Heron?” Cady raises her hand and explains that it is pronounced like Katie; the class shows little interest. Duvall apologizes by relating the story of his nephew Anfernee, whom he knows not to call Anthony. The introduction gives his authority a human, self-deprecating quality: he is the person formally presenting the newcomer, but not an especially polished master of the moment.

Authority and School Discipline

Duvall becomes more prominent when the Burn Book reaches the school administration. When he calls Cady, Gretchen, and Karen to his office, he asks Cady whether she has seen the book. The question puts him at the center of the investigation, but the evidence also shows how quickly the private insults inside it become a public institutional crisis: the girls’ behavior will soon spill from his office into the corridors and draw the entire school into conflict.

The immediate trigger for the larger disturbance is Regina’s circulation of Burn Book material while students are in class. Between periods, students encounter the insults and accusations; anger, tears, and shifting loyalties give way to physical disorder. Duvall enters a scene in which Coach Carr is holding Trang Pak and Sun Jin Dinh apart. He orders the coach to step away from the underage girls, and after a tense pause Carr releases them and disappears into the crowd. Duvall’s intervention is forceful, though the confrontation makes clear that adult authority itself is being tested amid the chaos.

As the conflict continues, a girl swings from a doorjamb and kicks at Duvall when he offers help. He smashes the fire alarm with a baseball bat, setting off the alarm and sprinklers, but the disturbance does not immediately calm. He then orders all junior girls to report to the gym. The bat, alarm, and command mark a shift from trying to manage separate confrontations to clearing the school of the escalating crisis and gathering its participants in one place.

The Girls’ Assembly

In the gym, Duvall addresses the junior girls after the sprinklers have gone off. He has taken off his button-down shirt and still holds the baseball bat; the altered setting gives his speech a blunt, improvised quality. He says he has never seen such behavior in fourteen years as an educator, notes that parents have called to ask whether anyone has been shot, and threatens to cancel the Spring Fling. The threatened dance draws a collective gasp and murmurs, revealing how much the students care about the event even as their conduct has put it at risk.

Duvall frames the gathering as an attempt to change how the girls relate to one another. He says he will keep them there until four and asks who has a problem with another girl that they want to discuss. Joan the Secretary reminds him that the school cannot keep students past four. His response—that he will keep them until four—shows both his determination and the limited practical reach of the threat. The girls’ grievances are not simply punished or dismissed; he tries to make them speak about their relationships in a collective setting.

That effort is complicated from the start. Karen raises her hand, but Gretchen quickly swats it down, an immediate instance of the social pressure the meeting is meant to address. Bethany Byrd speaks before Duvall can pursue either of them. The sequence makes the assembly more than a speech from an administrator: it places the girls’ habits of silencing and managing one another in view, while Duvall tries to redirect a crisis born from the Burn Book toward direct discussion.

The Spring Fling and the Crown

At the Spring Fling, Duvall gathers the nominated royal court and asks the DJ to cut the music before announcing the results. Cady is initially absent from the stage. Duvall starts by telling the nominees that they are all winners, then announces Shane Oman as Spring Fling King. When he reaches the queen’s name, the announcement identifies Cady, who is elsewhere in the gym. Duvall asks where she is and ultimately places the crown on her head.

Cady’s acceptance turns the ceremony into a public reckoning with the social harm surrounding the crown. She acknowledges that some people are angry with her and that others like her for the wrong reason. She apologizes to those hurt by the Burn Book and directs attention to other students’ appearance and effort, including Jessica Lopez and Emma Gerber. Duvall tells her that a speech is not required, but allows her to continue. His role is procedural, yet the pause he gives her lets the school’s formal celebration become an occasion for apology and recognition.

Cady then calls the crown plastic, breaks it, and distributes pieces to Gretchen and Janis. Duvall remarks that most people simply take the crown and go, a dry response to the ceremony’s unexpected turn. His presence links the school’s official recognition of a queen to Cady’s refusal to treat the title as private property. The ending does not show Duvall resolving every conflict; instead, he presides over a change in what the crown signifies, from a single winner’s status to a gesture of shared recognition.