Ordinary Harassment

by Donna M. Heintz

Maria Martin is a small woman with a big heart and a strong mind who always looks for the good in people. A teacher who loves to share her passion for learning with her high school students, Maria never imagines that one day she will become a victim of a phenomenon more common than she ever realizes.

In 2000 after Maria accepts a teaching job at the Penn Area Vocational Technical School, she begins keeping a diary as a way to record events she hopes will help her become a better teacher, role model, and person. Maria's love for her daughter, alonna, and her rewarding job bring her a good life - until she begins to receive flowers on a regular basis from a married male coworker she barely knows. Alan Pierce has set his sights on Maria, an unwilling participant in his well-known sexual escapades. As his advances escalte, Maria soon finds herself in the midst of a nightmare infused with verbal intimidations, vandalism, and a physical assault.

In this competlling story based on true events, one woman must rely on her inner strength to rise up above the heartless, malicious behavior of her tormentors and seek justic for all.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2012

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A teacher friend told me about "Ordinary Harassment," stating she heard it was really about our own local technical school. The book is listed as fiction inspired by true events that take place in a fictitious school district in a fictitious county in Pennsylvania but after about the first thirty pages the author begins to correctly name landmarks and cities that make it very obvious it's about the vo-tech school in Fayette County, PA. The story is told in diary format chiefly about sexual harassment, verbal intimidations and an administrator who goes out of his way to create a hostile environment for a female employee. I found the story riveting but I think the situations and terminology would make "Ordinary Harassment" confusing and less interesting to those outside the teaching profession. My heart ached for the situations the central character was put in, but after a hundred pages I began to wonder how one person could have this many different work related problems. The story ends too abruptly when the news that she is suing her tormentors is about to hit the local newspaper.

About halfway through I looked up the school staff and the resulting court case and found that the author and the defendants still all work together. I wonder how this thinly disguised book is affected their working relationship today. I'd love to discuss it with someone in the know!

[Donna Heintz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who has been a victim of workplace harassment or knows someone who is going through workplace harassment.