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Guest Character Profiles > Lana Kline Elizabeth Parisi

Lana Kline 2017, 2020, 2024
Occupation: Education Department Representative

A regular visitor to Erinsborough High School, Lana Kline came by one day when principal Susan Kennedy was struggling to hide what she believed to be symptoms of her MS. Having already suffered ill health, due to Finn Kelly swapping her vitamins for strong painkillers, Susan was being closely monitored, and Lana arrived to begin an investigation into Finn's conduct during his time working at the school. Having managed to hide her symptoms from Lana, it wasn't long before Susan's husband Karl realised that her eyesight was failing her. After some tests at the hospital, it was confirmed that she had suffered a new MS flare-up.

A couple of months later, Karl had taken Susan to a retreat in Thailand to help with her health, and Susan's niece Elly Conway had been appointed as Acting Principal in her absence. Unfortunately, on the day that Susan returned, which coincided with another visit from Lana, Elly had found herself in quite the predicament when when got body scrub over her clothes and had to take a shower in the school locker rooms. When her clothes were stolen by one of the students, she then had to try and run through the school to the principal's office, covered only with a wall banner - only to find that Susan and Lana were already in the office, looking over Elly's poor work as Acting Principal.

A few years later, Susan was returning to work after another break, due to ill health caused by the death of Finn Kelly. With rumours circulating that drugs were being dealt from the school, Susan struggled to keep on top of matters when the school corridors were trashed and flour were thrown around to look like drugs. Feeling that she could no longer do the job, and with a visit from Lana imminent, Susan was ready to give up, but a visiting Jane Harris suggested that they could bring in Yashvi Rebecchi, who had joined the police since leaving the school, to give a drugs awareness talk. When Lana arrived, she was impressed with the initiative, and Susan went on to offer Jane some teaching work at the school.

A few more years had passed and Susan had retired, with Jane taking over a principal of the school. Under Jane's tenure, enrolments at the school had decreased and the board took the decision to close Erinsborough High. The land was bought by Terese Willis, who planned to open a retirement home, but after protests, she came up with the suggestion that the site could be shared by a downsized school and her retirement home project. The plan was approved by the Education Department and the local council and, at the beginning of 2024, the smaller school reopened, with building work for the retirement home beginning close by. When Lana paid a visit to the school, she raised concerns about how close the building site was to the students and whether the tools and equipment was safely locked away. She was unimpressed when Terese, distracted by personal problems, failed to engage fully with the conversation and matters only got worse when a knife was found in the school. The building went into lockdown and the police were called, and Lana was unhappy to find out that gang member Slade Westall had been hanging around the school and the weapon could be connected to him. Satisfied that Jane and the police were dealing with the matter, Lana left, but she warned that she'd be keeping a closer eye on Erinsborough High in the future.

It turned out that the knife belonged to JJ Varga-Murphy, who'd brought it to school to defend himself against Slade. It was agreed, between the school and the education department, that JJ could return after a two-week suspension. However, a few weeks later, he was caught up in another drama when he helped Felix Rodwell to rob the worksite of Eirini Rising, next to the school. With JJ in turmoil, having found out that Felix was his biological father, he was struggling to think about anything else as Felix was refusing to see him. JJ's parents, Remi and Cara, were determined to get him back into Erinsborough High, and, after persuading Jane, it was then up to the education department to make the final decision. Lana agreed to a meeting but, when she arrived at the Varga-Murphy house, JJ was nowhere to be seen. With a lot on her plate that day, Lana declared that, if JJ couldn't be bothered to turn up, then he wouldn't be able to return to the school. She then left, with Remi and Cara upset as it appeared that JJ would be expelled from Erinsborough High.

Trivia Notes
• Elizabeth Parisi (as Elizabeth Shingleton) previously appeared in the recurring role of Coffee Shop Assistant Cassandra between 1997 and 2001

Episodes Featured
7629, 7663, 8415, 8998, 8999, 9025