- "You know what? I don't feel sorry for these kids. I don't. I really don't, because I had to sleep in the streets and eat dog food. Dog food. Yet nobody feels bad for me. Why? Because I'm a white guy. And the white guy in America today can go to hell, and nobody gives a damn."
- —Mike to Jefferson Pierce[src]
Michael "Mike" Lowry is the current principal of Garfield High School, replacing Jefferson Pierce.
Biography[]
Mike Lowry was hired by the board of Garfield High School as principal after Jefferson Pierce resigned from his post. One of his first acts was to install metal detectors at the school. On his first day, Jefferson Pierce welcomed him to the school confronted him about the metal detectors, asking if they were really necessary. Lowry told him they were or else Jefferson would still be principal.[1]
Lowry intervened when two students were found fighting in the halls of Garfield High. Although Jefferson Pierce had resolved the situation, Lowry immediately expelled Sekou Hamilton, the student who had thrown the first punch stating that Garfield now had a zero-tolerance policy for fighting. When Jefferson told him that Garfield was built on the understanding that no one was above redemption, Lowry told him that if he could not follow the new rules, then he was free to leave as well.[2]
Lowry went back to his office where he was confronted with an angry Jefferson who told him to never speak that way to him again. When Lowry asked if Jefferson was threatening him, Jefferson made it clear he was. Lowry again told him that he had the option to leave if he could not support the new rules. While Lowry intended for no children to be harmed under his care, Jefferson tried to make the case that expelling Sekou would be more likely to make him a threat than someone they could be proud of. Lowry refused to budge from his position of zero tolerance.[2]
During the A.S.A.'s occupation of Freeland, a group of soldiers led by Sara Grey arrived at the school to arrest Tavon Singley on suspicion of being a metahuman. Mike strongly protested and attempted to prevent Tavon's arrest but one of the soldiers struck him in the face with the butt of a rifle, knocking Mike down.[3]
Personality[]
Hard-headed, stubborn and perpetually embittered, Lowry is the polar opposite of Jefferson in practically every way, including their views on education. Lowry is a merciless disciplinarian who offers no understanding or second chances to any student regardless of their situation or the present circumstances and frequently talks down to the other staff members in a very disrespectful way. He has openly declared that he simply does not care in the slightest about the hardships that so many of the Garfield students have to contend with and instead believes that the students need immovable boundaries and definitive rules in order to keep them in line with the threat of severe punishment if they stray.
From his first day, Lowry is openly loathed by the student body and teaching staff of Garfield High because of his replacement of the hugely popular and widely admired Jefferson Pierce, his zero-tolerance policies and the belief among the school population at large that, as a white man, he cannot understand the ethos and traditions of the school nor the day-to-day experiences of the students and staff in society; this belief has since been proven correct on a number of occasions.
Lowry is quite arrogant and self-delusional, resulting in a visible sense of so-called 'white persecution'; he wrongly believes that what he (incorrectly) perceives as racism against him by Jefferson Pierce is somehow equal to the actual racism faced by the African-American citizens of Freeland and clumsily tries to use the hardships he experienced while growing up as an excuse. This in turn also feeds his 'white persecution' complex since, from his warped point-of-view, he thinks that the world doesn't care about him nor feels bad for him simply because he is white and everyone is focused entirely on the hardships faced by people of colour while disregarding white people altogether, which he uses as a pathetic justification to not care in turn.
Appearances[]
Black Lightning[]
Season 2[]
- "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Two: Black Jesus Blues" (mentioned)
- "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Three: Master Lowry"
- "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Four: Translucent Freak"
- "The Book of Secrets: Chapter Two: Just and Unjust"
- "The Book of Secrets: Chapter Three: Pillar of Fire"