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The N.C. Supreme Court should try teaching middle schoolers.

The justices, insulated in their peaceful chambers, last week denied a worker's compensation claim for a former middle school teacher whose "job was driving her crazy," in the words of her psychologist.

I've never taught in middle school, either, but my wife does. And there are days when the job drives her crazy, believe me.

In fact, I'll bet there are thousands just like her, who totter on the brink of losing it, desperately clinging to sanity until summer vacation finally arrives.

Barbara K. Hassell, bless her heart, didn't make it.

Hassell's career as an elementary school teacher in Onslow County proceeded apparently without crisis for nine years. Then life took a turn for the worse when, in 1996, "she began teaching at Dixon Middle School," the court's ruling, written by Justice Robin Hudson, said.

From that point, "plaintiff consistently had problems managing the classroom and maintaining order ... Plaintiff dreaded going to work because of student disciplinary problems and student disrespect for her, which included verbal and physical harassment."

Hassell's classroom troubles, many teachers will not be surprised to learn, were blamed on her. She was given poor evaluations and warned to do better. One day during the spring term in 2002, she left school and didn't go back.

At that time, she was seeing a psychologist, Dr. Dennis Chestnut. He found that she was experiencing a severe emotional crisis, diagnosed her with generalized anxiety disorder, medically excused her from work and said she couldn't return to teaching. He considered hospitalizing her. In technical terms, he noted her "job was driving her crazy."

We all feel that way sometimes but unless we're middle school teachers, we really have no idea.

Hassell officially resigned her position and filed for worker's compensation benefits on the grounds that her disorder "was an occupational disease caused by a hostile and abusive classroom environment."

That sounds like a reasonable claim. Anyone familiar with middle schoolers could attest to their hostile and abusive nature. Gather two dozen of them in a classroom and match them in an adversarial relationship against a lone teacher, and there's no contest. The only concern about this case would be that, if Hassell won, middle school teachers all across the state would immediately resign and demand worker's comp, too.

Maybe the Industrial Commission thought of that because it denied Hassell's claim, ruling she didn't prove her condition was characteristic of and peculiar to her occupation. Sure, lion tamers and bomb defusers might be in similar straits. But the commission said she wasn't asked to perform duties not required of other teachers. If chaos reigned in her classroom, it must have been her own fault.

This reminds me of the scene in the movie "Patton" where the hard-driving general slaps a soldier suffering from battle fatigue. If he wouldn't fight, Old Blood & Guts fumed, he was a coward. Look at all the other brave boys out there getting shot up without a complaint.

Hassell had classroom battle fatigue. Just because other teachers soldier on, was Hassell's collapse a sham? Did she just need a good slap?

She got one, or three. The Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court backed up the Industrial Commission's denial.

The Court of Appeals embraced the argument that "plaintiff herself created the stressful work environment" -- a statement the Supreme Court actually disavowed as improper. But it declined to refute the Industrial Commission's conclusions.

I think the Supreme Court -- save Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, who dissented from the majority opinion -- should spend a few days this fall in middle school classrooms. The justices could lead discussions about the rule of law and respect for the institutions of society.

Without the usual courtroom security.

The experience just might drive them crazy.