Researching the Gay Teacher at Abbott Elementary

 I watched the first episode of Abbott Elementary, about the wacky exploits of teachers at a down-and-out elementary school, when it first premiered on Hulu last year.  I didn't like it -- the mockumentary format is a immediate turn-off, and there was some heterosexist "all boys like girls!" dialogue. But when the second season started dropping, I looked at the episode descriptions more closely.  One was: "the teachers meet Jacob's boyfriend."

Wait -- one of the teachers is gay?

So I watched the episode, "Desking" (actually in the first season).  

It's about the fad of "desking": jumping from one desk to another in a classroom.  The teachers try various ways to stop it, such as criticizing it in class and dragging all of the desks to the gym.  Finally they hit on having a teacher "desk"  to make it uncool.  The goofy history teacher Jacob (Chris Perfetti) is chosen; he calls his boyfriend, the plus-sized and fabulous Zach (Larry Owens) to bring his jogging shorts and shoes.  

The teachers ask how they met.  Zach was in line to buy a fabulous pair of shoes, while Jacob was protesting worker exploitation.  

Zach appears in only 2 episodes, this one (Season 1 episode 12), and the following (Season 1 Episode 13).  But the teachers are not surprised that Jacob is gay: he must have been outed earlier.  I'll have to go through the whole season on fast-forward, pausing at the scenes featuring Jacob.

Episode 1: Focus character Gregory (Tyler James Williams) arrives to sub for a teacher who was fired for kicking a kid.  He explains (to the camera: this is a mockumetary) that he was hired to be principal, but then he revealed the deacon at his church having an affair, and the deacon pulled some strings with the school board and had him demoted to substitute teacher.  

 Jacob is happy to see another male teacher at the school; now he'll have someone to discuss sports with.  "Do you like women's tennis?"  It's sexist to believe that all men and no women like sports.  Is the reference to women's tennis supposed to tag Jacob as gay?

Episode 2: There's a heat wave, they try to change a light bulb, and Gregory dates one of the kids' parents.  Jacob appears only as part of the gang.   

Episode 3: They get a lot of donations from the community.  Jacob tries to repair a trashed office machine, except he doesn't know what it is.  Finally he gives up and turns it into a planter, but it's not watertight.

Episode 4:  Jacob tries to buddy-up to focus character Gregory by introducing him to everyone.  Gregory wants nothing to do with him, and scrams as soon as he can.   I can't understand why he hates Jacob so much.  Maybe he's homophobic?  

Fellow teacher Melissa is offended when Jacob refers to her as a "South Philly Type" (presumably violent, street-smart, lower-class?),  so he tries to back-pedal by enumerating all of the good things about the neighborhood.  Later he gets angry when she brings a union rep in to discuss his fights with the police, and she gets angry because "you want to romanticize the city."   He apologizes: "I was a jerk.  I wish my ex-husband could ever admit that."   So Jacob outs himself with an ex-husband in Episode 4. 

Episode 5:  Jacob thinks that the kids are bonding with him when they insult him.  Gregory says that he is actually being clowned.  So he insults them, and they respond with worse insults, like "a Huff-Po Reading Gay Pete Buttigieg." So he's out to his students?  Pennsylvania must not be one of the "don't say gay" states. 

Episode 6: Jacob teaches in the gifted kids' program, but the non-gifted kids feel left out.

Episode 7: Jacob and sardonic principal Barbara start a garden at the school. Only 7 episodes in, and the writers are already trying to think of plots involving every possible duo.  

Episode 8: One of the teachers, Janine, tries to match Jacob up with a guy, but he states that he has a boyfriend.  She is upset that he has never mentioned him before, and Jacob explains that they are just work friends; they don't discuss their private lives.  So she arranges a get-to-know-each other session for all of the teachers.  So he's out, but he keeps his boyfriend a secret, while the other teachers are discussing romantic entanglements in detail.  Sounds closeted.

Episode 9:  Jacob tries to buddy up with Gregory again, and gets rejected again.  But to be fair, Gregory doesn't seem to like anyone at Abbott Elementary.  Or anything else.  He doesn't even like pizza, which upsets his coworkers.  Here we get another origin story: Gregory always wanted to be a principal, and "majored in" principaling in college.  But Barbara blackmailed the deacon at church to give her the job, relegating Gregory to sub.  That's impossible: principals are promoted from the ranks of teachers, so he would major in elementary education, work as a teacher for several years, and then become a principal.  Did none of the writers interview anyone in the field?

Jacob appears only as part of the gang in Episodes 10 and 11, lead us to "Desking" and meeting The Boyfriend.  Rather a matter-of-fact outing, but at least no one is homophobic (except maybe Gregory).