"School Of Thought"

Episode 317
(aired the week of 4/12/1999)
Case # 33-3016

Log line: The O.S.I.R. team goes undercover at a reform school after students begin exhibiting psychokinetic abilities.

Synopsis: The OSIR team investigates after an auto shop teacher at Royalton Custodial School is crushed against a wall by a car. Three of his teenage students - Tanya, Gloria and Marty - had been working on the vehicle before it inexplicably sped into the teacher. When Axon lifts the hood of the car, he finds it has no engine. He concludes that the "accident" could be the work of a student with telekinetic ability.

Background checks on the students reveal that Gloria is a former street kid who has bounced around foster homes, Marty is a troublemaker who has spent three years trying to finish his high school diploma and Tanya, who was diagnosed with depression 18 months ago, has created problems for her adoptive parents through truancy, shoplifting and arson. A fourth student who captures the team's attention is Warren, the school bully who has been a gang member since he was 12. To determine which of the students has telekinetic powers, the team goes undercover - Praeger as a drama teacher, Donner as a gym instructor, Axon as a science teacher and Hendricks as the school doctor.

Donner gets a glimpse of telekinesis firsthand while coaching basketball. Warren is making fun of Tanya's inability to shoot a basket when she suddenly launches the ball toward the hoop. Rebounding off the rim, the ball accelerates and strikes Warren in the chest, knocking him head over heels.

Remembering the CIA had a paranormal unit until a few years ago, Donner decides to hack into the agency's computer database to see whether its records cover anything similar to what's been happening at Royalton. She is able to gain access for only a few seconds when she is booted off-line by the CIA's security system. She tries again later, and comes across a database called Project Fledgling, a discontinued project that catalogued children's psychokinetic abilities.

Again, Tanya demonstrates her abilities. While Praeger and Axon are standing in the school hallway with Royalton's vice principal, Ms. Holton, they see Tanya, Gloria and Marty arguing by Tanya's locker. Suddenly, Tanya's locker falls, trapping Gloria underneath. Gloria escapes with a minor cut on her arm.

Donner approaches Tanya at lunch time outside the school, trying to win the girl's trust and learn about her trouble with the other two students. Marty, watching from nearby with Gloria, begins staring at a power generator that is suspended on a hydro pole near Donner and Tanya. The generator sparks and rips loose. Donner is able to pull Tanya to safety just as the generator crashes to the ground.

Axon learns that Gloria also has special abilities. Demonstrating the power of magnetic fields to his science class, he enlists Gloria's aid to help him show how a spinning top can be suspended between two magnetic fields. But the top suddenly flies across the room, narrowly missing Warren, who had been taunting Gloria.

Donner is out walking with her boyfriend Marc when they are intercepted by federal agents who take them into custody. Donner, who got the feds' attention when she hacked into the CIA database, is able to convince one of the agents to take her to the OSIR lab, where Praeger will vouch for her. Praeger does so and, with Donner's help, also manages to coax the agent into telling them about Project Fledgling. He informs them that the project studied children with telekinetic and paranormal powers. But the project failed and was disbanded years ago. The CIA believes that the founder of the program, Marla Cook, somehow managed to hang onto three of the subjects, presumably with some sort of revenge plot in mind. He shows Donner and Praeger a picture of Cook. It's Ms. Holton!

That night, the team returns to the school and finds Tanya and Marty in the gymnasium. They try to convince the students they don't need the guardianship of Ms. Holton, who is watching from a balcony above the gym floor. When Ms. Holton flies into a rage, Tanya and Marty combine their powers and send her tumbling over a railing to the floor below. The students are taken in by the OSIR for safekeeping and study - but is Project Fledgling really over?

Starring:
Matt Frewer - Case Manager Matt Praeger
Barclay Hope - Peter Axon
Nancy Anne Sakovich - Lindsay Donner
Colin Fox - Dr. Anton Hendricks
Dan Aykroyd - Host

Guest Stars:
Lindy Booth - Gloria
Don Dickinson - Teacher
Elisabeth Rosen - Tanya
Marc Cohen - Marty
Keith White - Warren
Margot Kidder - Ms. Holton
Anthony Lemke - Marc
Rodger Barton - Agent

Written by: Rick Drew
Directed by: John Bell