Is Principal Ava Being Written Off Of ‘Abbott Elementary?’

Fans of Hulu’s hit show Abbott Elementary got quite a shock this week when a favorite character was fired. That’s right, Principal Ava Coleman was released from her position after covering for the other teachers taking bribes from the nearby golf course.

Ava, played by comedian Janelle James, has quickly become a fan favorite for viewers of the show. Now the fan base is wondering if this means that Ava will truly be leaving the show for good.

Abbott Elementary cast — TheThings/Instar

Ava Gets Fired After Taking The Fall

In Season 4, Episode 18, titled “Audit,” the staff at Abbott Elementary get a very unwelcome surprise in the form of auditors from the district who have come to search the school for bribes. It turns out that the district has been tipped off that the school may have been getting gifts from the nearby golf course which they aren’t allowed to have, and it’s not long before a scramble ensues, with the teachers trying to creatively hide all of the new supplies they’ve since received.

The show’s lead character, Janine, is especially stressed out because she’s supposed to have a shipment of spellers delivered from the golf course that very day. Though the group nearly gets away with their shenanigans, at the very last minute as the auditors are about to walk out, her shipment arrives, blowing their cover.

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Instead of letting Janine face the consequences, however, in a surprise move for her character, Ava steps forward and takes the fall for all of the bribes, claiming she was the only one responsible. This results in her being immediately fired from her post.

This May Not Be The Last We See Of Ava

Fans can rest easy knowing that this likely isn’t the last we’ll see of Ava, however. The show’s executive producer, Patrick Shumacker, noted in a conversation with The Wrap that her character will still be around, even if her post as principal goes to someone else:

The story is not over — You will see Janelle in subsequent episodes.

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That said, he did go on to say that Ava might be away from Abbott Elementary for a while, off doing something else outside of her work with the school. Just because she might not be walking the halls of Abbott, though, doesn’t mean that we won’t see her at all. As has been done with other characters on the show, such as with Melissa, occasionally the cameras will follow a character beyond their classroom and into their home.

Such enough, Patrick explained that even though Ava has had to “pay the piper and take the heat for everybody” for the golf course bribes, the writing staff never intended it to be her final exit from the show. In fact, he hinted that we might even get to see more of Ava off on her own in episodes to come:

The nice thing about our show is that [because] we have this documentary crew, it feels natural, even if a character does peel away from the show for a bit, [to still see them].

Indeed, in the scenes following Ava’s absence, we see the impact she had on Abbott Elementary, even if it was underappreciated at the time. For one thing, her extremely detailed filing system for the students’ records proves to be too much for Melissa and Gregory to crack on their own, and it takes additional teamwork for them to discover it relies on an immense knowledge of reality TV — an encyclopedic knowledge of Survivor, specifically.

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Since then, we’ve also seen Ava telling the others that she’s focusing on her “more lucrative” side hustles, though it’s unclear what, exactly, those are, and whether she’s actually being truthful with her former staff members. It’s not long before she finds her way back to the school for a fundraiser, and it’s possible she won’t want to stay away for much longer.

For now, there remain a couple more episodes in Season 4 of Abbott Elementary, and only time will tell if Ava will make her way back to her role at the head of the school.