Steven Harper

Steven Harper is the principal at Winslow High School in the TV show, Boston Public. Despite being a no-nonsense person of authority, Harper has a sense of honor and respect for those who challenge his authority, even the troublesome individual.

About Him
Being the principal, Harper often has to be hard on those who violate the rules of the school but prefers that is deemed fair and acceptable. His power-lifter like looks make many that have to face Harper have a sense of fear in him despite the fact his goal in mind to ensure the students at the school becomes reasonable adults. This is mainly he often has the final word and requests the staff members of the school to handle some problems that there not serious enough for him to handle. When he’s not dealing with the students, Harper has to deal with his assistant principal, Scott Guber, who often plays the ‘bad cop’ while Harper is more of a ‘good cop’. When Guber would try all he can to a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to discipline, Harper rather use common sense and sometimes his ‘less serious’ tone has been proven more practical.

Role in the series
While his past is much of a mystery, there are well-known reasons to Harper’s approach towards the students and staff members at the school. Throughout the series, it was understood that Harper was once a rebellious youth like most of the students he has to deal with. When he was a teenager, Harper had robbed a store with a group of his friends before a teacher learned about. Normally, someone has to report a person committing a crime, but Harper got a break when the teacher doesn’t do so. During the time, Harper got to thinking about his ways and decides to turn his life around, even taking up the sport of American football.

In season 2, it was revealed that he’s is a father of a rebellious teenager, a daughter, who got kicked out of a private school after an animal rights protest goes wrong. While he’s hard on Brooke, Harper is a caring father and wants to mend relationship with his child. Despite being a father, Harper often feels uncomfortable when it come to making contact with a student since he understands what is deem accepting and the hands it usually he touches in an acceptable matter like a shake hand. This is known was he was told that a teacher hugged a distress student, Harper felt it was unacceptable to touch a student no further than a hand shake.

Sometimes, Harper often times he has to take action against staff members. In the first season, Harper had to deal with Harry Senate bringing a gun to school and dealing with the aftermath Danny Hanson and Marla Hendricks. In that season, Harper punished a teacher for using corporal punishment since Massachusetts is the second US State, behind New Jersey, to make it a criminal offense to use such practice in a state school. Despite this, Harper has a reasonable relationship with the school staff and inspires them to find a helpful situation to ensure students’ education is safe. At times, Harper would have gets a lesson from the students’ which helps him with a more reasonable case.