Richard Vernon

Richard Vernon
Gender:	Male
Age:	Unknown
Marital Status:	Single
Occupation(s):	Vice Principal of Shermer High School and the Supervisor of Detention
Family:	Unknown
Friends:	Carl the Janitor
Students serving detention:	John Bender Andrew Clark Claire Standish Brian Johnson Allison Reynolds
Alias(es):	Dick John Bender and Carl the Janitor Rich John Bender Sir John Bender, Brian Johnson, Andrew Clark, Claire Standish
Portrayed by:	Paul Gleason

Richard "Dick" Vernon is the mean vice principal of Shermer High School as well as the detention supervisor, and the main antagonist of the film.

Vice Principal

Mr. Vernon is extremely harsh and no-nonsense, and he does not take kindly to jokes around him. After Bender insults him seven times, he gives him two months of detention (March 31-May 11). When Bender and the others go to the hall so he can retrieve marijuana from his locker, Bender takes the fall for everyone, allowing them to go back to the library without getting caught. Vernon locks Bender in a storage closet for the remainder of the day and threatens him with what he'll do to him in the future. He even decides to test him to see how tough he is by asking for "just one swing." When Bender doesn't do it, he calls him a gutless turd.

While confiding in Carl the Janitor in the basement, he tells him that he's been teaching for 22 years, and every year, the kids get more and more arrogant, but Carl tells him: "The kids haven't changed, you have." Vernon disagrees, saying that the kids turned on him, and they think he's a joke. He also starts to wonder on how the kids will turn out in the future, and he's extremely fearful knowing that the incoming generation will run the country when he's an old man, they'll also take care of him.

At the end of the movie, instead of writing five essays that Vernon assigned them to do, Brian writes a letter, explaining how he can't accept them for who they are, and he failed to break them. While reading the letter, Vernon remembers Carl the Janitor telling him to not count on the kids helping him anytime in the future, because of how he treated them, and that no one will care about him even when he dies, because of his horrible behavior. After reading the letter, Vernon realized that Carl was right.

Allusions

• Vernon can be compared to the following characters:
  • Mr. Bender - Although in different locations and at different times, both heckle and abuse Bender.
    • At school, Vernon almost takes up Mr. Bender's role, via verbally berating Bender, and to an extent, physically abusing the latter.
  • Stanford Strickland (Back to the Future saga):
    • Both are strict school principals, who frequently berate a/the protagonist of the respective movie (Marty McFly, in Strickland's case).
      • However, Vernon is more of this, as he took it to measures like locking a student in a closet.
    • Both were portrayed by actors born in the 1930s:
      • Paul Gleason, Vernon's actor, was born in 1939.
      • James Tolkan, Strickland's actor, was born in 1931.
  • Ed Rooney (Ferris Bueller's Day off):
    • Both, in their respective movies, are shown working as faculty members of Shermer High school, a fictional school in Illinois, and a popular location, where many John Hughes films took place at and/or featured.
      • Vernon and Rooney could very well be co-workers.
    • Both are authoritarians who did just about anything, even if it was illegal and/or plain abusive, to discipline/punish a student, often a/the protagonist of the respective movie (Ferris Bueller, in Ed Rooney's case).
      • Vernon took disciplining Bender to far measures, like locking the latter in a closet.
      • Ed Rooney stopped at nothing to catch Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), including breaking into the latter's house.
        • However, Rooney did not actually hurt Ferris.
        • Another difference is that Vernon is at a higher position than Rooney:
          • Rooney is the dean of students.
          • Vernon is the assistant principal.
    • Both were portrayed by actors who were in their 40s at the time:
      • Paul Gleason was around 44-46, when he portrayed Vernon.
      • Jeffrey Jones, Rooney's actor, was around 39-40, when he portrayed Rooney