I worked with Karen T. McDermott at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School for many years and just want to give people a warning that this woman is extremely bad news. She is superficially charming. Of course, so is a used car salesman. She uses her charm and her fake smile to get her own way and to do whatever she wants, decency be hanged. She was in charge of the Guidance Department at the high school and would only hire women in the department. It was a policy, though an unofficial policy, of "no men allowed, " and it was Karen T. McDermott's policy. She was running the Guidance Department as if it was her own personal harem! There's something about her that you cannot put your finger on but it's unsettling and it's very much there. She was in trouble several times over the years and always talked her way out of it. Once she told me she just "sat there and smiled" at her detractors until they thought she was a sweetheart, well, some sweetheart her kind makes! She's also overly impressed with herself. More so than she has any right to be, the rest of us were laughing all over the faculty dining room about her most of the time. She comes from the slums but speaks in a fake Bryn Mawr accent. When confronted with anything untoward that she's doing she can get very far out of control, and quickly too. I saw it once. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Ms. McDermott. If she tries to seek employment at a new school or a new company people need to know that she is a lawsuit that is waiting to happen. Do not hire.