Word: mandernach
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Dates: during 1999-1999
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...took a year of fighting on a near daily basis, but Joe finally found in Mandernach a man he could trust. He took Mandernach's power technology class in his sophomore year and thrived. Junior year he arranged his schedule to be with Mandernach for a remarkable three hours a day: in auto lab, auto mechanics and as a student assistant. His academic teachers began to see less antagonism. Joe was finally getting his high school life under control...
During the first school day after his sister's death, Joe came to the auto shop. Mandernach, unprompted, said, "If you need somebody to just listen, I'm always here." Joe wasn't talking much to anybody, but sometimes he came in and told Mandernach that he needed some time. Joe would sit in his car, and Mandernach, if he could get class coverage, would slip out and check...
...back of the shop, huge wooden slabs, stained by oil and grease, lie on top of old gym lockers, creating the lab space where students learn engine anatomy. All sorts of auto parts fill the shelves and remaining floor space. "All this stuff is just tools," says Mandernach, looking around his shop, "tools to motivate kids...
Three years ago, Mandernach, as Joe's freshman-year academic lab instructor, saw Joe the way his other teachers did--angry, ready to fight even at the slightest challenge, and irresponsible. "He had a small-man problem," says Mandernach. Joe weighed only 80 lbs. in his freshman year, and even now, with short brown hair, smooth face and dimples, he looks more like a freshman than a senior. "Joey's such a sweet kid," says his mother Debbie Deimeke, who divorced Joe's father when Joe was six, "but inside he's got all this pent-up anger...
...eligibility board will let him rejoin the team. Faye Walker, the Suspension Lady, who saw Joe as a "terror" his freshman year, sees real growth: "Now he knows where he wants to go and who he wants to be." It's Joe's last year in auto shop, and Mandernach doesn't mind letting him tune out every now and then. He, more than anyone, knows how far Joe has come...