Ms. Angela Li is the main antagonist in the animated TV series Daria. She is the principal of Lawndale High.
Biography
She never spoke the name "Lawndale High" without affecting a tone of awe and reverence. The character was often portrayed as a self-righteous, iron-fisted tyrant who had very little respect for her students and was constantly using school funds to purchase elaborate security equipment - 80% of the operating budget by her own admission. Indeed, Angela Li has been seen as many as being a parody of school officials who, in the late 1990s, were obsessed with fear of school shootings and compensated with over-the-top security measures (this despite the show's airing before the Columbine High School shootings). Bomb-sniffer dogs, urine tests, and fingerprinting are established facts of life at Lawndale High. In 2001 she created the Track-Tastic system "which comprehensively cross-references confidential student information, local law-enforcement files, and multiple consumer-spending databases, all while continuously monitoring e-Bay for stun-gun auctions". Despite her obsession with school security when it comes to crime and disorder, Ms Li is completely willing to ignore lack of safety over maintenance issues ("Fair Enough"); and she's annoyed when Helen Morgendorffer reveals a substitute teacher was sexually harrassing students, because that put her in "a fix" by having to find a replacement. She is also unconcerned with any damage done to the school's ability to educate by her actions or penny-pinching. The Lawndale Lions football team, however, is sacrosanct: in "Fizz Ed", she's only bothered by the budget squeeze when it affected the team. When it comes to wages or employee benefits, Li is monstrously tight-fisted. She is also known for extreme corruption: she not only allows sports players to have their grades fixed but is actively involved in pressuring teachers to do it ("See Jane Run", "Mart of Darkness") and, in one case, blackmailing a student over it ("See Jane Run"). Despite this, she was forced to recognise Daria's academic achievements in "Is It College Yet?"