An Excerpt

OBVIOUSLY, the man on the stand with the soft voice and gray hair had gone berserk. ...had done something so awful, so abhorrent, that it must be a death penalty case. But if the curious spectator stayed around long enough, it would have bcome evident that the crime of the man on the witness stand had nothing to do with murder. It had nothing to do with rape or robbery or assault or even a parking ticket. It had to do with a grade in algebra II.

And the curious spectator would have found that the man on the stand wasn't a murderer, or a child molester, or even a parking violation scoff-law who had taken a power saw to a boot.

He was Will Bates the math teacher, and his crime had been giving a flunking grade to a Carter Cowboy football player who had a 49 average on his tests, had missed at least one class to watch football films, and hadn't tried to do all his homework.