Joanna Chapel’s stomach curled in fear as the two boys circled each other menacingly. Chapel warned the two high school sophomores to stop and return to class, hoping to end the incident before blows were traded. The boys ignored her order and began pushing each other hard in the chest.

At 98-pounds, Chapel was no match for the young men. Johnnie Sykley and Russ Meyers were Varsity Football players at Quincy High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. Each boy weighed nearly 200-pounds, mostly muscle. Chapel had seen the boys yelling at each other earlier. Now, following their lunch period, she saw the boys’ notebooks on the floor, ready to square off. They were directly in front of Mike Russell’s classroom.

"I recognized one of the boys as one I had accompanied to the office on a prior occasion when a substitute teacher had asked me to take him to the office because he had been totally out of control," Chapel said. "Also, I had often observed this particular class’s rowdy and disruptive behavior in the hallways at the end of their lunch period because their teacher, Mr. Russell, never seemed to be able to return to his classroom before his students after the lunch period."

Chapel looked for Russell but, true to form, he was not in sight. Chapel yelled for help, hoping another teacher would step in to break up the fight. A large crowd of students had gathered to watch the two boys beat each other and her pleas for help could not be heard over the catcalls and taunts coming from the crowd.

Chapel watched in horror as Meyers suddenly lashed out. He threw a hard uppercut into the chin of Sykley. Sykley reared back and retaliated with a strong blow to Meyers’ gut. The crowd went wild, howling for blood. Chapel knew the boys could get seriously hurt if she allowed the fight to continue. She steeled her nerves and stepped between the two combatants.

Meyers threw a punch that whistled past her ear. She heard a sickening thud as the punch found its mark below Sykley’s right eye. Sykley shoved Chapel hard to the ground and advanced on Meyers. He swung wildly and missed. Meyers countered with a hard left to Sykley’s temple.

Chapel staggered to her feet and put her hands on Sykley’s chest. She pushed with all her weight, trying to back up the angry young man. She felt like she was pushing against a brick wall. Chapel took her hands off the boy’s chest, and then slammed them back on him again. Sykley stumbled backwards, a look of shock on his face.

"Sykley began to move towards me. I remember my strongest thought was that [Sykley] was either going to strike me or strike [Meyers] and continue to fight," Chapel wrote, in her written statement to Quincy High Assistant Principal, John Garcia. "I made a split-second decision to shove [Sykley] away from me. At that point in time, the students who had been watching the fight and cheering the boys on, all began to yell that a teacher had hit a student."

Chapel listened to the accusing chants of abuse, stunned. She watched, frozen, as Dave Jesper, the shop teacher, encircled his mammoth arms around Sykley. He had heard the commotion on his way back from lunch and came to help. Jesper lifted the boy off his feet and began dragging him to the office. Mike Carter, Jesper’s friend and fellow shop teacher, restrained Meyers.

Chapel thanked Carter and Jesper as they were leaving, then took a deep breath.

After leaving Garcia’s office, Chapel went to find the two shop teachers, who were on their planning break. She found them in the faculty lounge, discussing the fight. The two men asked Chapel what had transpired. Chapel told them the entire story. Jesper told Chapel he didn’t know a fight was under way until he heard the students screaming about a teacher hitting someone. He offered to make a statement to Garcia backing up her story. Chapel thanked him, but told him that wouldn’t be necessary.

Before Chapel left for the day, Garcia paid a visit to her classroom. Garcia informed Chapel that he needed a written statement from her about the incident. Sykley had received a black eye in the fight and was claiming Chapel had given him the bruise. Garcia told Chapel that Sykley was claiming she had used excessive force to break up the fight and had punched him in the eye with a closed fist.

"Garcia told me that he planned to call Sykley’s parents and would talk with them," Chapel said.

Garcia told Chapel that allegations of abuse have to be reported to the police but, because the complaint was about how she broke up the fight, the school would deal with the matter internally.

As a result of the fight, both boys were suspended. Johnnie Sykley’s father picked him up from school and drove him home. The ride home was filled with a tense silence. Finally, Johnnie’s father broke the silence by teasing Johnnie about his black eye.

Johnnie didn’t laugh. Instead, he told his father he hadn’t been fighting. Johnnie claimed he had been play fighting and Chapel had misunderstood what was going on. He told his father that Chapel had thrown him into a locker and punched him in the face.

Johnnie’s father was stunned by his son’s statement. The next day, he called Assistant Principal Garcia to make an abuse report. Garcia arranged for a meeting between Chapel and the Sykleys.

"Mr. Garcia told me that the Sykleys were concerned that I had punched their child in the face. Mr. Garcia wanted me to tell them what had happened," Chapel said.

At the meeting, Chapel explained her actions to the parents of Johnnie Sykley. The boy’s mother and father listened without asking any questions. When Chapel was finished with her explanation, the parents shook hands with her and left. They never told Garcia or Chapel that they had already filed a child abuse complaint with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

"Wednesday, November 15, at the end of the school day, Mr. Garcia approached me in the hallway and handed me Detective Sharon French’s business card. He told me Sykley’s parents had filed a complaint and that he was sorry. He said he’d done all he could, but Sykley’s parents had called her on Monday – the day of the fight," Chapel said.

Garcia told Chapel to call French and schedule an interview. Chapel called the detective the next day. French wanted Chapel to come down to the police station to talk about the incident, but Chapel refused. Chapel reasoned she could give the same information over the phone.

"I was extremely irate by this point," Chapel said. "I still had to deal with a situation which I felt had been resolved."

French relented and took Chapel’s statement over the phone. After Chapel finished giving her version of the events, French informed her that the complaint would have to be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office and they would make the decision on whether or not to file charges. French expected a decision to be made by Monday.

Prior to interviewing Chapel, French had already talked to witnesses of the fight. All of the students she interviewed denied a fight had taken place. French highlighted a statement in her report to the District Attorney by Tracy Smith, a girl in Sykley’s SIEBD class.

"Sykley and Meyers were fake fighting…you know…playing. Ms. Chapel came over and told them to stop. When they didn’t, she threw Sykley against a locker. He said something to her and she punched him."

French had also interviewed Sykley and Meyers. Both boys claimed they hadn’t been fighting. Meyers told French he’d seen Chapel throw Sykley against a locker but hadn’t seen her punch him because her back was to him.

"At this point, I became really concerned," Chapel said. "I wasn’t worried about legal bills since I was a member of the CEA, but I was worried about the damage to my career. I knew criminal charges could lead to the loss of my teaching license. I called the CEA and Greg Lawler took my case. He walked me through what would happen and explained the ramifications of a police report, something no administrator had done for me. I was floored by what could happen. My name was going to be placed in the abuse registry of Colorado and the allegations would show up during future employment background checks. I told Greg I not only wanted to be cleared of wrongdoing, but I wanted my record expunged."

On November 15, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s department filed formal charges against Chapel. Because she was charged with misdemeanor assault, she wasn’t arrested.

"This was a teacher that broke up a fight between two boys that were twice her size," Lawler said. "I didn’t think charges should have been filed because she was going about the normal course of her duties. The Sheriff’s Office was getting pressure from the parents to charge her and they had corroborating witnesses. If one of the boys had been seriously injured, my client and the school would have been held liable in a civil suit. She did the only thing she could. I took the case not only to protect my client, but also to protect other teachers who may find themselves falsely accused. I was also worried because I could see the chilling effect that the charges were having on other teachers at Chapel’s school."

Lawler explained that the other combatant, Russ Meyers was involved in a fight the day after charges against Chapel were filed. According to Lawler, teachers were present during the fight and refused to break it up.

"Not only did the incident show that Sykley and Meyers were really fighting, it demonstrated the fear Chapel’s charges placed upon every teacher. They were paralyzed. The teachers couldn’t do their job for fear of criminal charges."

The students exacerbated the situation. When they heard about the charges against Chapel and that she hadn’t been suspended, they threatened to walk out of class.

Lawler immediately contracted the services of an investigator. He needed to find a corroborating witness for Chapel’s version of the events and prove the boys were lying. Lawler was curious about witness statements that claimed the two boys were roughhousing, not fighting. After meeting Chapel in person, Lawler wondered how a teacher of Chapel’s size had thrown a student, who was more than twice her size, into a locker.

"I think Sykley was embarrassed he lost the fight and blamed Chapel," Lawler said. "He needed to save face with his peers."

While Lawler prepared a defense, the School District began an investigation of its own. School District officials were concerned that Assistant Principal Garcia hadn’t followed school policy and notified the police when the allegations first surfaced. Following the District’s investigation, no action was taken against Garcia. The District Attorney’s office did take action, though. Garcia was charged with failing to report child abuse, a misdemeanor offense.

"This is one of the few incidents where a school supported a teacher," Lawler said. "The repercussions Garcia endured show why School Districts suspend teachers, even if they are innocent. If administrators side with the teacher, they risk being drawn into the legal proceedings themselves."

While Lawler and his investigator sorted through the conflicting accounts of the fight, Chapel wasn’t sitting idly by. She began asking her superiors tough questions about Sykley and Meyers.

"When I learned Russ Meyers had beaten up another student, Mr. Jesper told me Johnnie Sykley routinely picked fights. I asked Principal Miller, Garcia’s boss, about the boys," Chapel said. "He acted like he’d never heard of them. After that conversation, I discovered that both boys had been very big troublemakers and Dr. Miller definitely knew who they were. I had the support of Mr. Garcia, but I think Dr. Miller was trying to wash his hands of it."

Chapel also tried to get an explanation for Mr. Russell’s constant tardiness after lunch periods. She believed the incident wouldn’t have occurred if the quarreling student’s teacher had been back to class on time.

The case proceeded to trial rapidly. According to Lawler, the case consisted of the student’s words against Chapel’s.

"In physical abuse cases there’s very little evidence," Lawler said. "The only way to mount a defense is to bolster your client’s credibility. To do that, I needed to show the boys had a history of violence and that Ms. Chapel’s side of the story was the only logical explanation."

Lawler’s investigator uncovered evidence of the boys’ past disruptive behavior.

"We discovered that a month prior to the fight, a group of students got rowdy on a school bus on the way home from a field trip," Lawler said. "One of the students was Johnnie Sykley. He was standing up, yelling at another student. A teacher, Joan Shaw, was on the bus and yelled at Sykley to sit down. Sykley resisted and started cussing at Shaw. The teacher pushed Sykley back down in his seat. Sykley yelled, ‘Ouch’. When that happened, the rest of the students began chanting ‘Sue Shaw! Sue Shaw!’ Sykley then told the teacher he would tell everyone he had been punched and get Shaw fired. The students knew the legal ramifications of an abuse complaint and were using it as a weapon…a weapon they weren’t afraid to use against my client."

Lawler also found a District policy prohibiting anyone from standing and watching a fight. An infraction led to an immediate suspension.

"If the students admitted they were watching a fight, instead of a ‘play fight’, they faced a three-day suspension. The students had no incentive to tell the truth," Lawler said.

Lawler turned his findings over to the prosecutor. Lawler asked that all charges against his client be dismissed. He argued that even if Sykley sustained a bruise as a result of Chapel’s actions, she was only doing her job.

Lawler’s portion of the case was concluded, but Chapel’s fight was far from over.

"Joanna Chapel was a strong woman. She didn’t want to see any more teachers prosecuted for doing their job and she was determined to do something about it," Lawler said.

Chapel began by trying to get the District to create a legal fund to pay the legal bills of teachers wrongly accused. Chapel’s defense costs were picked up by the CEA, but Garcia’s had not been. Union membership is not offered to administrators. Because the Assistant Principal was not a union member, he had paid thousands of dollars out of his own pocket. Chapel was instrumental in changing the District policy to reimburse the legal bills for school employees wrongly accused of crimes.

Colorado’s Congressmen were reluctant to draft legislation at first. But, due to the overwhelming news coverage Chapel generated for her cause, they drafted a bill protecting teachers in the normal course of their duties. In 1990, the legislation took affect.