A Golden Apple is a Victim of the Rotten Apples

in administration that are so rampant in public education. She's been unemployed for "only" a year, unless you call substitute teaching for 10 bucks an hour twice a week as "working," and she has no realistic prospects to resume her career unless she does some major relocation. Just like yours truly has been unemployed and underemployed for nearly SIX years.

There is no doubt the principal engaged in age discrimination to make way for some young chick to take her job. She's hitting 50, and it's downhill from there.

It wasn't so long ago that O'Connor was a married woman in a two-income family. Now, at 49, she is divorced, unemployed and raising two teenagers on her own.

"You wake up one morning thinking you're part of the middle class," she said, "and the next day you're filling out Medicaid forms."

And when you're single, you can damned near kiss it off ever being able to support yourself ever again. At least she has some child support for the kids. She's on UI, but just wait until THAT runs out. It sounds like she was NOT a "post-probationary" employee, which means the principal could just get rid of her to make way for somebody else.