Barbara Marquardt

Bashed Barbara Marquardt

As school closes for Christmas, a teacher doing her best in a failing and chaotic high school is knocked down by an abusive student and locked into a Biology storage closet. As the room has a sink and some food stored for lunches and prep periods, she is only in danger of spending two horrible weeks dieting in a cold room with no toilet or bed or much else beyond obsolete books and broken equipment. Waiting and hoping for rescue, she creates order and routines, finds ways to make the best of her time and solitude, and ponders her life and career. The student had said he would claim self defense, say that she had demanded sex in exchange for a passing grade. That charge, strange given that he was a burly 18 year old skinhead and football player with a stud's reputation, makes the news when she's finally rescued. The public and school officials are quick to blame her, for incompetence if not for the sex charge, although she also tells her side, files a police complaint, and tries to get union help. Even her daughter and boyfriend, though on her side and sure she is innocent, seem to wonder how she let such a thing happen. The event changes her life in many ways. This story of a teacher unfairly blamed for a violent incident in which she's really the victim is symbolic of the way in which capable teachers who struggle to help students in the most difficult schools sacrifice their reputations, as people assume good teachers are all in good schools. It is an important story in these times when so many teachers, both excellent and mediocre, are losing jobs if their students aren't achievers. The author is a retired Chicago teacher.