Bye-Bye, Junior High
"Bye-Bye, Junior High" is the sixteenth episode of the third and final season of Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi Junior High. It originally aired on CBC Television in Canada on February 27, 1989. It was written by Yan Moore and directed by Kit Hood. The episode takes place at the end of the school year as graduation approaches; despite the fallout from the death of his parents at the beginning of the season, Derek "Wheels" Wheeler manages to pass, but Christine "Spike" Nelson, who is raising her daughter Emma, must make up for poor grades over the holidays, something which she does not react well to. At the graduation dance, a fault in the boiler room causes a fire to spread throughout the school, razing it to the ground.
The episode received a positive reception from contemporary critics.
Plot
The end of the school year is approaching and the students are taking their final exams. Joey Jeremiah is excited to go to the graduation dance with Caitlin Ryan, but Joey's mom tells him that he must not get a C, otherwise he won't be able to go, something Joey doesn't tell Caitlin. Christine "Spike" Nelson, who is exhausted and disillusioned taking care of her daughter Emma, arrives at school later to do hers alone with Ms. Avery. Meanwhile, the school's gas and electricity is under maintenance, but the workers are daunted by the problems and agree to leave barrels of gas in the building. During class, the fire alarm goes off, but it turns out to be a false alarm. Mr. Raditch hands Joey his grades personally, two As, four Bs, and one C. Raditch is proud of his improvement from last year. but Joey is forced to cancel his plans with Caitlin because of the one C, which she reacts poorly to.Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, whose parents were killed at the beginning of the season, is told to stay behind by Mr. Garcia, and Wheels thinks he failed. However, Garcia tells him he barely passed and that despite being normally recommended to repeat the year, it was in his best interest to stay with his peers. Wheels leaves ecstatic. Meanwhile, Ms. Avery visits Spike at her mother's salon with her grades, which are poor, and recommends she take correspondence classes over the holidays. Spike reacts very poorly to this and balks at the prospect of her having a future while being a teenage mother, blaming Emma for her situation. Avery chastises Spike and tells her she is lucky to be able to have a baby.
Joey comes home depressed about the C, but his mother is impressed with his other grades and allows him to go to the dance after all. At the dance, Joey and Caitlin reunite and reconcile, and Spike approaches Ms. Avery for the forms for her correspondence classes. Two younger students playing tag around the school smell smoke emanating from the boiler room. They investigate the smoke and then open the boiler room door, revealing a massive fire inside that starts to spread towards a group of gas barrels left by the maintenance. The two immediately run back to the gymnasium to warn of the fire but nobody listens to them until the alarm sounds. As the students start leaving the gymnasium, they hear a large explosion and quickly rush out to the front of the school to witness a large fire spreading through the building. Caitlin doesn't see Joey and starts panicking until he arrives and embraces her, and everyone watches horrified as the fire rages through the school.