Before his untimely death during the apocalypse, high school teacher Derek Hephaestus Gladly ('Mr. G' to those who loved him, and to his students) penned his autobiography on the loose sheets of paper available in the shelter where he lived out all but two of his remaining days. It was recovered by his girlfriend mere days before Earth Bet was rendered uninhabitable. Now living in relative safety on another earth, she has chosen to publish his unfinished and mostly unaltered manuscript posthumously.
The media has called Gladly's actions—or inaction—controversial in light of the recently released ghostwritten biography of one Taylor Hebert, infamous bug-controlling villain-turned-hero, who suffered an extensive bullying campaign that the teacher allegedly did nothing to prevent. Some have posited that he was a significant influence on her negative opinion of authority figures in her teen years, which would manifest itself as violent crime, bouts of infanticide, and the tendency to extol the virtues of narcotics to youths.
"A part of her wanted to explain to [Gladly's girlfriend] that he was the worst sort of teacher, who helped the kids who already had it easy, and dropped the fucking ball when it came to those who needed it."
—Chapter 8, Part 5: And Then the Water Lizard Attacked, Caught in Your Web
In his memoir, Gladly contends that he 'totally tried to help, but she was all, "don't do that" so [he] didn't'.