It may be ironic for a P.E. teacher to be obese, but it still came as a surprise to students when girls’ P.E. teacher Betty Blodgett was fired in 1968 due to her severe obesity.

“The teacher is a model of what they teach — a good English teacher should be able to speak with good grammar, a French teacher should be able to speak good French, and so on,” said former Principal Donald Kreps in defense of his decision to fire Blodgett in an April 1968 issue of the Bark. 

Though Kreps cited that Blodgett’s weight problems kept her from performing required duty and acting as a good role model to students, Blodgett protested the termination.  She brought Kreps to public hearings in the District Office, citing that it was unfair and unlawful to be fired based on her physical condition. 

Blodgett’s attorney Leonard Bjorklund and several parents of Blodgett’s students testified on her behalf, acting as character witnesses and assuring that she was a good woman and a fine teacher.

“Miss Blodgett is alone in the world and is fighting for her job,” he said. 

He also said that there were no health or fitness requirements to apply for a teaching position at Redwood. 

However, Blodgett had previously received warnings from Kreps that she would need to become physically fit or lose her job.  In a meeting approximately one year before her termination, Blodgett agreed to obtain a signed doctor’s note vouching that she was working on improving her health issues in a specific time frame.  According to Kreps, several months later the physician claimed to have given up. 

Kreps said that the warning further justified his decision not to rehire Blodgett. 

“This I substantiated with my own personal observation, watching girls in P.E. classes laugh at Miss Blodgett, watching girls imitate the way she walks, the way she stands, and her mannerisms, and realizing that, yes, they were imitating a person who had a severe medical problem,” Kreps said at the time.

Kreps was criticized after making several controversial comments to local papers.  He was quoted as saying that Blodgett was “a living hypocrisy of the subject she is teaching.” 

According to former Redwood administrator Sue Chelini, Blodgett was unsatisfied with Redwood’s handling of her case and later sued the school for unjust termination.  The lawsuit was eventually settled in Blodgett’s favor and she returned to Redwood as an English teacher.