[menloparkbum]

I always wondered about the size of PG's school. My high school was pretty bad, academic wise. The parodies of teachers as portrayed on South Park are not far off the mark. However, there were only around 60 people in any given graduating class. This seemed to dampen any rigid social hierarchies. There were lame aspects - stupid, quasi-criminal guys who were good at hockey often got a free pass. Since it was a small town, there was often collusion between school officials (the hockey coaches) and external authority figures. A couple hockey players were always drunk driving, and getting pulled over, but there never seemed to be any repercussions. Perhaps because all the law enforcement officials in the area also had kids on the team.

One group that was notably absent was the super-smart outcast nerd group. There were a few people who looked and acted like stereotypical socially inept nerds, but they weren't actually very smart. Sadly, when I think back, the people in that group (we're talking like 3-5 people) were probably dealing with weird stuff that mostly happens in rural communities, like semi-abusive parents involved with cultish religions. Most of the smart people who went on to do interesting things were either relatively popular, and if not explicitly "popular" they still had friends and weren't really picked on.