When a cynical reporter (Jay Mohr) profits from such a favor -- a stranger suddenly gives him a brand new automobile -- he tracks the notion back to Trevor, the boy's harried mother (Helen Hunt) and the troubled junior high school teacher (Kevin Spacey), a terse man with a burn-scarred face, who helped Trevor nourish the idea at the start.
The State Board of Regents voted unanimously today to support an Education Department plan to close the troubled junior and senior high schools in Roosevelt, on Long Island, next year and possibly disperse their students to surrounding districts if the schools do not meet certain academic and administrative goals in the upcoming school year.
And Mr. Hopkins, who earned wide praise in 2010 for his endearing portrayal of the troubled Junior in the New York City Opera's landmark production of Bernstein's "Quiet Place," sang vibrantly in three Barber songs and Paul Bowles's "Blue Mountain Ballads," with Jerad Mosbey accompanying.
Students offer many different reasons for choosing a post-graduate year: learning better study skills, exploring interests they overlooked in high school, playing another year of sports without using their N.C.A.A. eligibility, improving their SAT scores, or gaining more distance from a troubled sophomore or junior year.
Michael Adebowale, six years Adebolajo's junior, had a troubled upbringing.
Troubled individuals or a troubled society?
Arriving at Dyker Heights for her first principal's post, she was tasked with transforming a troubled kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school into a real junior high.
Tony Allen, the star guard, arrived two years ago after a troubled high school career in Chicago and stints at two junior colleges.
It was a troubled sanctuary.
Michael was a troubled boy.
