After 23 years of employment at the local hospital, beginning her career as a staff nurse and working her way through management, Marena was thrilled to have landed the teaching role at the local career center. She was now responsible for developing a program to educate juniors and seniors in high school preparing them for various health care careers. Marena is driven to want more than that but can she come to terms with her new reality. Marena is often accused of sticking her nose into the lives of her students, learning more than she ever thought. However, it's the students who approach her with the problems in their lives with poor ways of coping. Problems of abuse, neglect, poverty, mental illness, and impaired physical functioning. Her well-meaning colleagues give advice, but it's not always the advice she follows. One overlooked man seems to have the answer. Alarming and unsettling, Unlocking September is a moving and graphic depiction of rural teenage life. By re-creating little known events a picture of resilience and hope emerges along with a strength in quiet acts of love and compassion. A must read for educators and parents.