On any given day, history teacher Bob O'Donnell takes a helmet from his cabinet, adopts the appropriate accent and whisks his class to a faraway place and time:Caesar's invasion of Gaul. Napoleon's battle at Waterloo. Or maybe the trenches of World War I.
As an honors and advanced placement history teacher, O'Donnell helps East Lake High students understand great discoveries, the growth of the global economy, the rise of democracy and the fall of empires.
But there's one thing he can't explain: Why he has to leave.
And that has students and parents rallying to his side.
After 35 years teaching history in Pinellas County, O'Donnell, 56, finds himself in a spot he didn't anticipate. Five years ago, he, like many other teachers, signed up for the state's Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP.
