The mean girls had the new kid up against a metal locker as the fourth grade class prepared for gym, teasing her and pushing her. Donna DeCaprio threw her things on the floor, wedged herself in between them and told the tormentors menacingly, “You f-ing mess with her, you f-ing mess with me!”
The mean girls never again bothered the new girl, who to this day remains DeCaprio’s best friend.
It was the first of many injustices DeCaprio was determined to make right.
It is a skill she uses daily in her job as president of Atlantic City’s main casino workers union, Local 54 of Unite Here.
