It Takes Integrity

It's election season at Odyssey Middle School, and Curt Stevens figures the president's job is his - until Lucy Cunningham-Schultz, tired of empty promises, jumps into the race at Whit's urging. Curt promises hot tubs for the locker rooms; Lucy promises library computers, gym equipment, and nothing she can't deliver. When posters and pranks fail to stop her, Curt takes some crooked advice from Bart Rathbone: dig up dirt. At the big debate he waves an old Odyssey Owl story Lucy got wrong, and suddenly the crowd calls her a hypocrite. Lucy knows secrets about Curt that could sink him in a heartbeat... but she'd rather quit the race than use them. When Whit lets Curt discover just how much Lucy has kept quiet, Curt does the unthinkable - he withdraws, apologizes, and hands the election to the one candidate with real integrity.

Found on It All Started When... Album 13 · 13 episodes

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0175 East, Winds Raining On Pearl Harbor Day, old Joe Finneman finally tells his great-niece what he saw in Honolulu on December 7, 1941 - and why his best friend, a Japanese American codebreaker, is the reason he can't hate anyone for that day.

1 of 2 0176 The Star A trip through the Imagination Station's new Christmas adventure separates Connie and Eugene in the ancient world, where each finds an unexpected guide on the road to the Christ child - and to King Herod's Jerusalem.

2 of 2 0177 The Star While Connie helps care for a very special newborn in Bethlehem, Eugene arrives in Jerusalem with three star-following magi - and their search for a newborn king draws the dangerous attention of King Herod.

0178 Room Mates When a college fumigation leaves Eugene homeless for a week, his distant cousin Bernard takes him in - and two stubborn know-it-alls discover just how hard sharing a house and a window-washing job can be.

0179 You Gotta Be Wise When a shock-rock cassette by local bad boy Rodney Rathbone sweeps through Odyssey, newspaper editor Dale Jacobs finds the battle over its lyrics landing squarely in his own daughter's bedroom.

0180 Isaac the Pure After a round of after-school jokes leaves him feeling dirty inside, a boy sets out to make himself completely pure - no matter what it costs him.

0181 It Takes Integrity When a cynical schemer runs unopposed for student body president, an idealistic school reporter enters the race to prove that integrity still matters in politics.

0182 The Scales of Justice When two thousand dollars in found cash sparks a courtroom showdown at Whit's End, Isaac must prove the money is rightfully his against the scheming Rathbones.

0183 Tales of Moderation When Connie asks why a wealthy man like Whit lives so simply, he hands her a book of three tales that make the case for moderation better than he ever could.

0184 Isaac the Chivalrous When a legendary knight steps out of the Imagination Station and into modern-day Odyssey, young Isaac gets a firsthand - and unexpectedly challenging - lesson in what chivalry really means.

0185 A Question of Loyalty When shy newcomer Emily's hidden writing talent blossoms under Lucy's mentorship, a countywide newspaper contest puts their new friendship to the test.

0186 The Conscientious Cross-Guard A by-the-book middle school crossing guard must decide whether to abandon his post or face down the school's meanest gang alone.

0187 An Act of Nobility A young American traveler in a small foreign kingdom discovers he bears an uncanny resemblance to its prince - on the eve of a coronation someone is plotting to prevent.

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Made by

Chris Anthony Host Phil Lollar Writer · Director Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Paul McCusker Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

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It's student council election time at Odyssey Middle School, and Lucy Cunningham-Schultz can hardly believe that Curt Stevens is running for office again - this time for student body president. His last campaign was a disaster of ridiculous speeches and empty promises, but Curt breezes into Whit's End handing out flyers and bragging that he is the frontrunner. In fact, no one has even bothered to challenge him, so he figures the election is already in the bag. When Lucy refuses to write a flattering profile of him for the Odyssey Owl and complains that nobody running these days stands for integrity, Whit turns the idea back on her: if she wants an integrity candidate, she should be that candidate. Lucy marches straight over to Curt and announces that she is officially in the race.

What a race it turns out to be. Curt runs his usual say-anything campaign, promising hot tubs for the locker rooms, while Lucy sticks to real issues like library computers and gym equipment, promising only what the students can actually accomplish. When Curt's poster-tearing and rally-crashing tricks fail to slow Lucy down, he goes looking for a giant neon sign at Bart Rathbone's Electric Palace. He can't afford it, but Bart offers something cheaper: advice. Everybody has done something bad at some point, Bart says, so dig up the bad thing Lucy has done and use it against her.

Curt does exactly that. At the big debate at Whit's End, he pulls out an old issue of the Odyssey Owl in which Lucy wrote a mistaken story about a shampoo company, based on the word of an unhappy ex-employee. Lucy printed a retraction long ago, but the damage is done. Where was her integrity then, Curt demands, and the crowd turns against her. A new poll shows Curt with a huge lead, and Lucy is seen as a hypocrite.

When Lucy asks to hold a press conference, Whit braces himself, because Lucy knows plenty of very personal secrets about Curt, including something about his father. But Lucy has no intention of fighting dirt with dirt. She plans to concede the race, because integrity demands it. Ashamed that he ever doubted her, Whit visits Curt's headquarters and gives him a taste of his own medicine, pretending he is about to hand the story about Curt's father to the school paper. Once Curt panics, Whit reveals the truth: neither he nor Lucy would ever do such a thing. Lucy has known Curt's secrets all along and never breathed a word, and she would rather lose than hurt him. That, Whit says, is what integrity is all about.

The next day, Lucy arrives expecting to withdraw - and finds Curt already at the microphone. Admitting that Lucy is the best person for the job, Curt withdraws from the race himself, apologizes to her, and offers his services when she becomes president, explaining that he has discovered integrity is a lot more important than he thought. And so Lucy becomes student body president, and Curt learns a lesson, as well as Curt can ever learn one, about the true meaning of integrity in life and in politics. Whit closes his journal wishing that some of the nation's leaders would learn that lesson too.