Pubdate: Tue, 11 Dec 2007
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2007 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Oren Yaniv, Daily News Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

PRINCIPAL NIXES 'AMERICAN GANGSTER' TALK

"American Gangster" Frank Lucas has been expelled from a Brooklyn school.

Lucas, the reformed drug kingpin and subject of the hit Denzel 
Washington flick, was scheduled to lecture students at Middle School 
143 in Bed-Stuy last Friday before the principal abruptly canceled 
his appearance.

"I was very disappointed," Lucas said yesterday. "I really wanted to 
talk to them, to tell them what I did was wrong. I'll go down on my 
knees if I have to."

The man who ruled Harlem's heroin trade in the 1970s recently started 
speaking to schoolkids, sharing his past and imploring them to stay 
away from drugs.

The reaction has been positive, he said, but less than three hours 
before his first talk in a New York City school, MS 143 Principal 
Adofo Muhammad pulled the plug on the event.

"I changed my mind the night before," Muhammad said.  "I'm just not 
convinced in this particular case. ... I need to see a little more 
before I bring him in." 
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