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."