Tales from School

Baron Creek High School, molded by and reflecting the character of its innovative principal, George VanderZaan, was a progressive, peaceful, moral, and (above all else) orderly school acclaimed throughout the state. Its tranquil nature is suddenly disrupted by the discovery that one of its teachers, Phillip Rigger, has recently married -- but his union is with a man.The principal’s assumes that the disgraced teacher will voluntarily resign but instead soon realizes he is embroiled in a fierce struggle with a determined, implacable opponent determined to retain his position. His increasingly severe steps to rid his school of this moral pariah brings VanderZaan into conflict with the head of the local teacher’s association, Danielf VanDorf, who while helping the teacher fight for his job, considers his action depraved and sinful.Compounding the principal’s problem with his teacher is a distracting quarrel between the school’s sole African-American student and its premier football player. Having provoked a fight he predicts could potentially prove fatal, the student next suggests a novel solution. The principal shrewdly alters the plan in a way that he anticipates will both avoid the fight and end the feud, only to have his proposal backfire.The struggle between teacher and principal, already challenging of conscience for VanDorf, soon expands to engulf the rest of the teaching staff, the students, and the entire community, forcing VanderZaan to take steps that threaten to destroy the school he has molded in his image and the dreams he holds for its and his future.Robert L. Brielmaier taught history, psychology and English at the high school level for 31 years. His career was interrupted by two years of military service from 1968 to 1970, a one-year sabbatical at Michigan State University from 1978 to 1979 and a one-year leave of absence for classes at Roosevelt University in Chicago from 1985 to 1986. In 1997 he became an adjunct instructor of psychology and history at Hopkinsville Community College, part of the University of Kentucky, while teaching additional classes at Fort Campbell and Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. He has lived in Plano, Texas, since 2004.Brielmaier’s first book The Piano Plan: Reformulating and Revitalizing Social Security (a work of non-fiction published by AuthorHouse in 2007) has been nominated for the prestigious Eric Hoffer Award. More information is available at www.theplanoplanbook.com.