Sandbox / School For Scheming Wick Check

School for Scheming is about a school that's a front for evil, not a school that teaches evil. Even more confusingly, Evil School redirects to the former, not the latter.

Question

Is it being used correctly, or confused with Academy of Evil? 50 wicks were checked.

Findings

• 20/50 were correct usage, including potholes where the usage was clear from the context
• 4/50 were misc misuse
• 13/50 were ZCE
• 13/50 were potholes where it was not clear whether the usage was correct.

School is a front for something evil or clearly immoral

1. Literature.Down A Dark Hall: The exclusive school Blackwood (it's really really exclusive, it only has four students counting the main character) is really for the purpose of collecting kids with ESP so dead writers, artists, composers, scientists, and mathematicians can use them as vehicles to produce all the things they didn't get to when they were alive. This would be all fine and dandy — in fact, Ruth, the most intelligent of the girls, doesn't mind being used to write down mathematical theories — except that not only can people like Emily Bronte and Vermeer get through, but so can anyone else. Sandy ends up transcribing a terribly vulgar poem in French, and let's not even get into what Lynda paints. Also, Blackwood is not the first school Madame Duret opened; there was one in France and one in England. Of all the students at those schools, four killed themselves and the rest are in mental hospitals. Madame Duret keeps trying anyway.
2. Manga.Psychic Academy: The Aura reseach center is suppose to be like Academy, but with Professor Watabe at the helm the result is With Great Power Comes Great Insanity to the poor kids in order to insure power for the humans.
3. Recap.Law And Order S 3 E 5 Wedded Bliss: Amendariz' club is a variant of this; he opened it as a cover for finding sweatshop labor.
4. CruelTwistEnding.Live Action TV: "Straight and Narrow": An exclusive private school brainwashes its students for use as mercenaries, similar to the movie Disturbing Behavior, which it predates. The one student who is immune to the process manages to escape and tell authorities — who prove to be alumni and drag him back to undergo the procedure (now corrected to work on the likes of him) as the assassination he'd tried to prevent is successfully carried out.
5. SanitySlippage.Live Action TV: Firefly: One of the tie-in bits of promotional material for the movie Serenity is a short series of films called the "R. Tam Sessions," which depict River's traumatic time at the Academy. It starts off with River being a happy, eager girl who really wants to learn and push herself to her limits, but as the series progresses, she is shown slipping into madness due to the Academy's experiments. The series ends with River killing the man who has been interviewing her by shoving a pen through his throat (who, for those of you playing at home, was played by Joss Whedon).
6. ParentalAbandonment.Live Action TV: Firefly: A variation occurs, where the Tam siblings' parents send River to a government-sponsored Academy that proceeds to wreck her mind while experimenting on her. When Simon tries to explain to them what is happening, they show increasingly less interest in River's welfare, to the point that their father threatens to disown Simon if he continues causing trouble trying to reach her, which he eventually does before Simon rescues River. It is up in the air as to whether or not this is simply callous abandonment by their parents or outright Parental Betrayal, if you follow the line of thought that the Tams deliberately gave River over to the Academy.
7. Motherly Scientist: Most of the time, the plot starts with a brilliant doctor participating in an Evil Experiment on human test subjects, most of them young children (and perhaps an older Wendy) or students in a conveniently-placed high school. Everything, of course, in the name of Science, or for the Greater Good. It could also happen that the doctor in question was deceived or coerced into performing said experiment — or maybe she just was hired to keep the kids quiet.
8. VisualNovel.Double Homework: Dr. Mosely/Zeta is using the class as subjects in her sex experiment: Lauren, Morgan, Amy, and Rachel are four very different socially isolated girls, MC is the alpha male who’s supposed to have sex with all of them, Dennis is the threatening beta male who’s supposed to drive all the girls into MC’s arms, Johanna is there so the other girls will trust MC more, and Ms. Walsh is the ineffectual authority figure who allows MC to take a leadership role instead. Dennis derails the experiment with his prying, but Dr. Mosely/Zeta vows to run the experiment again somewhere else.
9. Recap.The Sarah Jane Adventures S 1 E 1 E 2 Revenge Of The Slitheen: The Slitheen have set up bases within schools worldwide to power their sun-draining machine.
10. WesternAnimation.Clone High: Parodied; the aptly named Board of Shadowy Figures plans to use the clones as military assets
11. Recap.The Hardy Boys 2020 Season 1: Evil Mentor: Gloria turns out to be this to Callie, whom she's been mentoring for quite a while to help her get into Rosegrave Academy, the prep school founded by Gloria's father, which turns out to be a front for a secret society running Bridgeport. She's only ever been good to Callie, but Frank guesses it's because she has plans for her, which is proven to be correct in the following season. She also shows a rather cold lack of concern for her protegee when Stacy kidnaps Callie and holds her hostage for the piece of the Eye, to the boys' disgust.
12. Theatre.Pinocchio The Musical: The musical's interpretation of the Land of Toys is a fake school (also referred to as "Donkey High") where kids are encouraged to destroy the books and do nothing but eat junk food, dance and have fun for months until one day they suddenly turn into donkeys.
13. Film.Fright Night 2 New Blood: Gerri is a vampire who starts working as a history professor at an international school in Bucharest to get access to more victims.
14. BigBad.Literature: "The Beguiling": Emeli Duboir, a sorceress and headmistress of the planet Slawkenburg's Saint Trynia Academy for the Daughters of Gentlefolk, which is actually a cult of Slaanesh. While attempting to lure some rival cultists to the academy to drain them, she ends up ensnaring Cain, Jurgen, and two other Imperial Guardsmen instead.
15. Series.The Hardy Boys 2020: Rosegrave Preparatory Academy, founded by George Estabrook, is a front for the Circle of the Eye, and grooms many of its students to either be part of the Circle someday or at least be connections for them. Even the dean of the school, Paul McFarlane, is just a pawn in their scheme, and is afraid of them. The second season adds another layer to this with the reveal that Rosegrave was experimenting on some of its students in Project Midnight using the Crystal. In the Series Finale, Callie goes public with everything she and Drew learned about the school and Project Midnight, hopefully finally ending them once and for all.
16. Recap.Law And Order S 18 E 13 Angelgrove: A variant - Angelgrove is a Christian summer camp that's a front for training kids to commit terrorist atrocities against other religions.
17. Literature.The Silver Crown: A secret school that brainwashes children and trains them as assassins and arsonists through the magic of the Hieronymous Machine.
18. ComicBook.Hack Slash: Camp Indigo River in the first Resurrection arc, which pretended to be training children how to survive supernatural attack, but was actually part of a plot to determine whether child slashers would be less insane and more controllable.
19. VideoGame.Yandere Simulator: Akademi was founded in the 1980's as basically one big training simulator for Megami's aunt to learn how to become a better company leader, and the other students would later receive jobs at Saikou Corp. In the present, Saikou Corp still has a strong grip on the school, including some mysterious, unknown purpose.
20. Film.Serenity 2005: River went to the Alliance-sponsored Academy to learn things. Instead she was tortured and experimented upon.

School is a front for something, unclear morality

1. Literature.Spy High: Deveraux College is a cover for the training of young spies.
2. Characters.The Secret World The Orochi Group: Vali's Rising Star program is based around the use of schools as recruitment centres for gifted children; the Happy Smiles Kindergarten in Tokyo is one such centre, though it's far from the only one Jung's been able to detect. Unfortunately for Vali and the Orochi Group at large, these initiatives aren't without their fair share of rejects and dropouts; doubly unfortunately for all parties involved, representatives of the Fear Nothing Foundation were also lurking around the playgrounds, waiting to recruit these dropouts.

School isn't a front at all

1. WesternAnimation.Delilah And Julius: The Academy is a high school for spies, though they are heroic spies that fight super villains.

Not a school

1. Feedbackverse: A variant in Conspiracy Cola; the Order of Kain is using a hospital ward full of terminally ill children - not a school - as a testing-ground for their new-and-improved Super Serum.

ZCE

1. VideoGame.Ayakashi Ghost Guild: The "Camelot Academy for Ghosts" event.
2. Characters.First Encounter Assault Recon Armacham Technology Corporation: Wade Elementary.
3. Literature.Children Of The Red King: A lot of scheming goes on at Bloor's Academy, by both the good and bad endowed. Usually the good endowed are trying to foil the bad endowed's plans, while the bad endowed hatch evil plots.
4. VideoGame.Voyage Of The Eldritch: Can be this on one of the story-routes.
5. Literature.In Conquest Born: The Institute for the Acceleration of Human Psychic Evolution (usually just "the Institute" or "Llornu", after the planet where it is based) is shady from the very beginning, but the depths of its willingness to use its students as pawns spans the story and even outlives the Institute itself.
6. Manhwa.My Secret Brother: The previous school Hanmi and Junhyuk went to had a major problem with this involving a sort of bully system and money. Unfortunately Hanmi was lured into it as well and paid the price which is why she and Jun transferred to a new school at the beginning of the series to start a new. It didn't work...
7. ComicBook.Jack Staff: (no example text)
8. Literature.Macdonald Hall: Local law enforcement suspects Macdonald Hall of being this in Beware The Fish.
9. Fanfic.The Jaded Eyes Series: Noctiluca which only accepts genius prodigies gifted in magic.
10. VideoGame.First Encounter Assault Recon: Wade Elementary. Test subjects for TK become psychopaths. Then again, if you've played the first game, you should automatically know anything associated with the Wades is bad news.
11. Series.Firefly: The Academy.
12. Webcomic.Cinco Elementos: Ébola / Desangrador's job as a teacher is only a facade.
13. Manga.Enigme: (no example text)

Unclear pothole

1. Bio-Augmentation: In Firefly, this appears to be the goal of the Academy, which gives people Psychic Powers, mental conditioning, and combat training to create superhumanly powerful assassins.
2. Web Serial Novel: Anima's Conquest is a web serial novel that updates at least once weekly. It is about a School for Scheming in a semi-post-apocalyptic setting.
3. Lawful Pushover: The Simpsons: Seymour Skinner, principal of Springfield Elementary School, is an Extreme Doormat to many forces of humanity, and his school regularly reflects that. Evil schemers in need of a Home Base? Principal Skinner turns a blind eye to it all. Insubordinates conquering and inappropriately renaming parts of the institution? Expect him to honor the name change with a wince. A teacher turning one of his top students into the target of a bullying campaign that has turned her life into a living hell? As long as the bullying doesn't involve physical contact, he doesn't give a crap — otherwise, the Teachers' Union will be on his ass.
4. The B Grade: In Death Note, Mello is the second-highest-ranking student at Wammy's House, but all that matters is that he's not the first.
5. ChildSoldiers.Live Action TV: Firefly: River is adorable, despite being a solider. Luckily, Simon was able to save her from the ominous Academy so she has a chance to be helped, and he would never let The Academy threaten her safety. Ever.
6. FateWorseThanDeath.Live Action TV: In Serenity, River asks Simon to kill her, partially to protect the crew, but also because she does not want to be taken back to the Academy.
7. EvilCannotComprehendGood.Live Action Films: Used and subverted early in Serenity (2005). Someone from the Academy says that Simon Tam "must be crazy" to have run such risks and gone to such lengths to save River. The Operative, true to his Well-Intentioned Extremist nature, recognizes it for what it is.
8. ChildhoodFriendRomance.Fan Works: A good number of Death Note fanworks have Matt and Mello falling in love at Wammy's House. Often (though not always), they reunite after a period of painful separation after Mello's In-Universe decision to leave Wammy's upon being told he'd be expected to work with Near.
9. Mysterious Waif: River from Firefly, who was tricked into leaving home for the Academy and can't go back home because her rescue by her brother turned them both into hunted fugitives. She's now both psychic and insane, and she was already a genius polymath, so she definitely knows more about what goes on than anyone else but she's not equipped to tell anyone about it in a non-cryptic fashion. Also, she can shoot people dead without looking at them and take out entire rooms of enemies with Waif-Fu.
10. Erudite Stoner: Kelly Norris from Anima's Conquest seems to be this. She is a profoundly gifted pharmacology student who synthesizes her own drugs and enjoys their effects. She is also the first to notice something shady about the school she's attending.
11. Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: In the Firefly fanfic Forward, River confronts Colonel Dannet, her former combat instructor at the Academy. He is so deeply distraught at what he and the Academy did to her and the other children there that he is willing to let her kill him in revenge. She is instead confused as to why she doesn't want to kill him, and forgives him when she realizes that it is because he thinks of her as a human and not a weapon.
12. Main.Open Says Me The Mysterious Benedict Society has a curious variation. While the doorways leading to some of the secret, but not super-secret areas in the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened are not locked, they're actually designed in such a way that they're opened only by ramming or kicking, as the main protagonist Reynie Muldoon discovers when he grows so frustrated in trying to open one of them that he kicks it. The reason for this is that the Big Bad, Mr. Curtain, enjoys ramming through doors in his souped-up wheelchair. The super-secret areas, however, are protected by numeric keypads, and no amount of kicking will get you through them. This is something that Sticky Washington, another of the protagonists, discovers to his chagrin before the keypad is spotted.
13. Characters.Death Note Main Characters: He's the second best student at a school for genii. He eats chocolate and blows stuff up.

Conclusion

There is no evidence of this trope being confused with Academy of Evil. It has a high ZCE rate but that can likely be fixed with a regular cleanup.

Not super relevant but I thought it was funny: Firefly examples on trope pages frequently pothole School for Scheming and many of those potholes gave more context than the actual School for Scheming ZCE on the work's page.