Karin Martel had never considered what happened to her in ninth grade shop class as sexual abuse. So when she is in a regularly scheduled, routine session with the department therapist to talk through the stress of her job as a 911 operator, she surprises herself by suddenly bringing up the memory of the groping she endured in high school.

In her job Karin deals with victims of abuse on a regular basis, but has never identified herself as one of them. Shop Class Hall Pass delves into the difficult eighteen months of therapy as she unravels the serious consequences of trauma and recognizes the impact trauma has on her callers and in her community. She also must come to terms with the realization that for thirty-five years she has been trying to fix, or control, or do, or not do whatever it was that made the boy sexually assault her every day in class, humiliating her in front of her classmates and teacher. Most importantly, Karin learns to feel compassion for her past, current, and future self.