Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of the students' love of rock and roll and their disregard for education. The leader of the students, Riff Randell, is the biggest Ramones fan at the school and also the worst behavioral problem, in that her disciplinary record fills an entire filing cabinet. She waits in line for three days to get tickets to see the band, hoping to meet Joey Ramone, so she can give him a song she wrote for the band, "Rock 'n' Roll High School".
When the tyrannical Principal Togar takes her ticket away, Riff and her best friend Kate Rambeau have to find another way to meet their heroes, winning a radio contest. Riff succeeds in delivering her song to Joey Ramone, but the next day, Principal Togar and a group of parents attempt to burn a pile of the kids' mostly Ramones rock records. In response, the students, joined by the Ramones (who are made honorary students), overthrow the teachers and hall monitors to take over the high school, with Principal Togar asking the musicians, "Do your parents know you're Ramones?"[6] When the police are summoned and demand that the students evacuate the building, they do so, but then the students and the Ramones blow up the school as a final act of youthful rebellion, driving Miss Togar insane.
