Ms. Morris is pushy and crabby, and gets particularly annoyed when her students (i.e., Daria and Jane) don't participate in her gym class. This can perhaps be forgiven to a certain extent, as Ms. Morris has no qualms with turning the class into a cheerleader practice session.

She claims that she's trying to prepare her students for the real world, and teach them something about American Competitiveness, but it seems more likely that she's just on a power trip.

Ms. Morris remembers Jane's sisters from previous classes, pointing out that Penny in particular never wanted to participate. She is stunned that Jane joins the track team when she doesn’t even want to participate in normal gym class, but is pleased to find that Jane is a first-class runner. Once Jane is star of the track team, she is even able to enjoy some of the perks that the other jocks get, such as skipping Ms. Morris' actual class so she can rest up for track meets.

After Jane quits the team, Ms. Morris threatens to flunk her if she doesn't come back. Jane makes a counterthreat to inform the news media of the grade schemes at Lawndale, and Ms. Morris backs off.