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Accident led to a new Hope

To understand Audenried High School teacher Hope Moffett, to understand why she stood up to challenge a plan to overhaul her school, to understand why she isn't bothered by spending days in "solitary confinement," one needs to know about both Hope Moffetts.

To understand Audenried High School teacher Hope Moffett, to understand why she stood up to challenge a plan to overhaul her school, to understand why she isn't bothered by spending days in "solitary confinement," one needs to know about both Hope Moffetts.

There was the Hope Moffett before a November 2006 car accident near the Brigham Young University campus.

And there is the Hope Moffett after it.

"Before the accident, I did everything perfect, to be perceived as employable," said Moffett, 25.

"I wanted to make sure I had stability in my life so I wouldn't have to worry about poverty, or the idea that I couldn't support myself."

But the accident "radically changed" her life and led the art-history major to decide to become a teacher. It also made her more willing to speak out without fear.

Moffett, then a senior, was crossing the street at 9:15 p.m. on her way to the library to study for midterm exams. A car driven by a 21-year-old woman plowed into the crosswalk, hitting Moffett at 35 miles per hour.

The impact shattered Moffett's lower right leg - the bone was later replaced by a titanium rod - and crushed her left knee.

"I flew into the windshield," Moffett said. "And when I fell onto the asphalt, my face was ripped up. My hair was torn out. I had a bald patch on my head. I had scars and stitches across the front of my face."

Moffett spent a month hospitalized, including two weeks in intensive care and then two weeks in a rehab center as she recovered from brain injuries.

For the first time in college, Moffett, who had a nearly straight-A average, struggled to learn.

"When I got a test back, the grades would be really poor, and I had to deal with the frustration of not understanding or remembering anything," she said.

She said the experience motivated her and has helped her understand her own students' struggles.

"It was eye-opening," she said. "It helped me to understand the frustration that other students experienced."

After graduating cum laude, Moffett joined Teach for America. By September 2008, the daughter of an Irish immigrant who grew up in a tough San Diego neighborhood where gangs thrived was ready to start teaching English at the perennially struggling Audenried.

Then, in January, the school district announced that it was turning over Audenried to be run as a charter school by Universal Cos., the development company run by music icon Kenny Gamble.

At a Feb. 9 community meeting at Audenried, Moffett was the only teacher to question the district about the plan.

"I'm willing to bear the brunt of the consequences if that's what it takes to make sure the school can function and people can retain their jobs," Moffett said, noting that it was a strategic plan for the young, single woman to speak out.

A week later, on Feb. 15, students, encouraged by community leader Charles Reeves, walked out of Audenried, at 33rd and Tasker streets, to protest the plan. They rallied outside school-district headquarters at Broad and Spring Garden streets. A news account later noted that Moffett had given a student SEPTA tokens.

"I'm not leading a mass revolution against the district," Moffett said. "These were authentic concerns among the students, parents and the community."

Reeves, who has three grandchildren at Audenried, said he has told district officials that he was the one who encouraged students to protest.

"I didn't know that they were going to accuse teachers," Reeves said. "They [the students] had a right to protest, and they were doing it in an orderly and respectful way."

Two days after the student protest, Moffett was told she had been "reassigned" and to report the next day to the High School Academic Division offices, located within Strawberry Mansion High School, on Ridge Avenue near Susquehanna. She faces an "investigatory conference" this morning, where administrators will decide whether she'll face further punishment.

Since her first day in the "rubber room," Moffett's story and photograph from inside the "teacher jail" has been front-page news.

She's received perhaps 200 e-mails from friends, teachers and strangers.

Just yesterday, she said: "Someone stopped me on the bus and asked, 'Are you Hope?' She said she had taught in the district, but she could not deal with it."

Moffett spends her days responding to the e-mails rather than preparing the students in her English class for the upcoming state standardized testing.

"Most of it has been encouraging," Moffett said of the e-mails. "People tell their own personal stories of when they've faced similar challenges in the district, or in other school districts outside of Philly.

"That is really helpful to me."

But Moffett said she doesn't feel like a celebrity, nor does she wish to be one.

"My situation has been caused by something else going on that is much larger than me," she said. "The stories that focus on my reassignment were caused by my speaking out against the district takeover. I feel it's not in the best interest of the students."