Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Things About Sunnydale High That Would Never Fly Today – Screen Rant

Sunnydale High School is really more of a character than a location in the hit series,Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The high school sits on the Hellmouth, which is a metaphor many fans and critics picked up on early in the series. The high school is prone to strange occurrences, missing students, and other unimaginable dangers.

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A lot of what goes on at this school was difficult to explain away and accept when the series aired in the late '90s and early 2000s, but today, there are even more things that would pose a lot of worrisome questions if they were happening.

In the pilot episode, a male student at Sunnydale High breaks into his school with a girl he has a crush on. That girl turns out to be Darla, who is really a vampire. Darla kills this student, drains his blood, and leaves his body in a locker in the girls' locker room.

When the body is discovered, everyone is understandably shocked, but school stays open and operating as usual. It's hard to imagine a school wouldn't completely shut down today if the dead body of a student turned up on campus.

One of the biggest problems when watching the series today is the fact that the library is really just there to keep all of Giles' books on demons and all of Buffy's slayer weapons.

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There's a massive cage sitting in the main part of the library that contains things like stakes, crossbows, and broad swords, but no one ever seems to question it. The cage is later used to keep Oz detained when he turns into a werewolf. A cage in the middle of a library is suspicious enough, without even knowing what it's used for.

Principal Flutie seemed like a really nice, friendly guy, but he definitely wasn't an administrator that could handle a difficult student body and all of the mystery surrounding the school he is supposed to be in charge of. This is most evident when Principal Flutie is killed by a group of students who are possessed by hyenas.

Principal Flutie is a pushover and not very tough, which are the two things an administrator in his position could never be, especially when your school sits on the Hellmouth.

Once Principal Flutie is killed, the man called him to replace him seems to be on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. Principal Snyder is a mean and miserable man and he takes a lot of aggression out on his students. He frequently threatens Buffy and her friends and sets them up for failure on numerous occasions.

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At the end of season three reveals that Principal Snyder is aware of the evils that go on at his school and is even part of their plan. It's hard to imagine a principal getting away with behaving this way in any school these days.

The swim team starts raising some red flags in an episode ofBuffy and we later learn it is because their coach has been secretly drugging them using the steam room at the school. This storyline probably wouldn't be as well-received today because the idea of a mentor harming their mentees in this way is just too unacceptable and not a storyline line most audiences find very entertaining.

Drug abuse, especially in kids and teenagers is not something that should be mocked or used for entertainment value.

The way the school and its administration handles the shootings that take place when two spirits come back to haunt the school in the days leading up to its Sadie Hawkins Dance would never happen in 2020. There are not only a series of shootings where the gun mysteriously disappears, but the cafeteria is overpowered by snakes and the building itself becomes surrounded with hornets.

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Despite all of this, come Monday morning, everyone is back to their usual routine and nothing is really ever said or investigated further.

The amount of students who turn up dead or go mysteriously missing in Sunnydale is alarming, but there seem to be no programs in place to help students protect themselves and when a student does find themselves in harm's way, it's always the slayer's job to save them, leaving audiences wondering, where are the teachers and administrators?

Sunnydale isn't a very big town either, so to lose this many young people would probably be cause for a lot of alarm in today's world.

Cordelia and her posse are the most popular girls in school. They are also the meanest. It's a widely known fact that this group of girls are ruthless with their peers and bully anyone they cross paths with.

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Most schools today have very strict "no bullying" policies and if Cordelia or any of her followers tried to say or do something to a fellow student, they would be suspended or even expelled for such bad behavior. A lot of what teenagers got away with in the '90s won't fly in 2020.

In an earlier episode, Buffy gets the power to hear everyone's thoughts. While in a busy hallway at school, Buffy is inundated with her classmates' inner monologues and it drives her a little crazy. As the voices dissipate, Buffy clearly hears someone threatening the students at Sunnydale High.

She later finds Jonathan, an outcast, in the clock tower of the school with a rifle. Jonathan was going to take his own life, but Buffy stops him. Jonathan is safe, but no one offers to help him any further. This is a situation that definitely should have been better handled by the school and its administration.

One of the biggest flaws is in the fact that Giles works at Sunnydale High School and is considered a respectable faculty member, yet he never reports anything that he sees or hears about through Buffy and her friends.

There's no way an administrator at a troubled high school today, who has as many ties to and knowledge of the strange things happening at school would get away with keeping it all a secret. The fact that Giles has a job at this school throughout the series raises a lot of red flags.

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Amelia Brantley is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles, California. Her love for film, television, and theater drove her to pursue her dreams at a young age. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Acting from The American Music and Dramatic Academy and constantly auditions/works in the industry. In addition to writing for ScreenRant, Amelia also blogs, on her own blog, as well as for other entertainment industry online resources. If she isn't writing or self-taping, she's most likely cuddling with her dog, Warner George.

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Things About Sunnydale High That Would Never Fly Today - Screen Rant

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