Accidental Hero - Room 408 is a riveting documentary that delves into the life of Tommie Lindsey, a teacher at James Logan High School in Union City and a member of the New Haven Teachers Association.

On the show, New Haven TA member Tommie Lindsey coaches his forensics team to a state championship.

The film, which will be shown on PBS at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19, takes viewers to the center of a multiracial classroom in the East Bay, where the focus of the teacher and his students is winning a state championship in the academic sport of forensics. Learning the art of public debating and oral interpretation changes their lives, and Lindsey, their powerful African American coach, is the driving force.

The story reveals the courage, determination and compassion of Lindsey, who works for hours on end preparing his students and guiding them through a world that is foreign to them - a world that is typically the domain of middle-class white students. Lindsey's students are racially and ethnically diverse. Many are from low-income, single-parent families and are the first in their families to complete high school, let alone plan to attend college.

The film - which has won two Best Documentary Awards, one at the 2001 Ashland Independent Film Festival and the other at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival in February - takes the viewer through the struggles, triumphs and celebration of the students and their teacher as they beat the odds and become the champions that Lindsey believes they can be. To help them, Lindsey gives his students material that allows them to draw on their cultural backgrounds - sometimes pent-up anger or pain - and channel these emotions into spellbinding interpretations. By instilling his students with poise and self-confidence and giving them the motivation and opportunity to use these skills to win state awards, Lindsey changes the courses of his students' lives. Nearly 100 percent of the students on his teams go on to college.

"This is one teacher's story and it's every teacher's story," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "Small miracles are achieved in America's public schools every day. Unfortunately, these are not the stories we hear and see in the news media. This film will go a long way in helping to balance the scales."

Accidental Hero was produced by filmmakers Terri DeBono and Steve Rosen. Associate producer Sandra Jackson is a media relations consultant for CTA. The three worked together on "Quest for Excellence," the award-winning syndicated television news-magazine produced by CTA and hosted by Dina Eastwood. The filmmakers also collaborated on Journey to Respect: The History of the California Teachers Association.

Check local listings for the date and air time. As soon as the information is available, it will be posted on CTA's Web site [www.CTA.org].