Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina using the school name of Topsail High School. There is a real Topsail High School near Wilmington and most of the props for the school were taken from there.
The character played by Annabeth Gish writes a paper which criticizes the presidency of Richard Nixon. Less than a decade later, Gish plays Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixon; who, as it turns out, offers to publicly defend her father from the very things described in Ryan(Gish)'s paper.
When Max is stumbling back to the table with the tray of feed at the skating rink, you can see the tape below the drinks that are keeping them stuck to the tray.
Patrick Morenski: You left the outside world; you've got to orient your thinking. You've got think repression, think limits. Think humiliation and despair. You're in high school for Christ sakes!