Janet Barch

Janet Barch is the Science teacher at Lawndale High.

Characterization
The main feature of this character was that, all through the show Barch constantly display her her deep harboured resentment of all men, caused the her divorce from her husband of twenty-two years. Almost everything she said on the show would inevitably digress into ravings about how her husband left her, or about men in general are selfish, untrustworthy and would abandon their female companions after the best years fo their lives.

This behaviour and hatred of men passed on to her teaching, where she would give lower grades to male students, and distort even basic school science knowledge by including negative references to the male sex. She once deliberately made Kevin Thompson do an "experiment" designed to crush his self-esteem ("Too Cute").

In "The Big House", during a hockey game against DJs, Barch is seen having Rock and Roll Randy in a headlock and punching him repeatedly while snarling "It's payback time, Randy!". It sounded like a personal vendetta: was Randy intended to have been her ex-husband?

Relationship with Timothy O'Neill


Janet Barch would start a a romantic relationship with colleague Timothy O'Neill in episode The Daria Hunter, which would last for the remaining of the series. The relationship was based initially on the attraction of a man with sensitivity, a concept she found paradoxical. In said relationship, she was extremely domineering and assertive, but the situation seemed to work well for both parties.

In Is it College Yet?, the series finale, Barch would misinterpret a comment by O'Neill and assume they're engaged, immediately starting wedding plans. These plans would be halted and Barch would leave O'Neill when the latter finally stands up to her (with the help of Anthony DeMartino), but she'd come back to him just at the end of the movie.

Trivia
Ms. Barch was voiced by actor Ashley Albert (sometimes credited as Echo and Petunia), who also gave voice to Tiffany Blum-Deckler.

During a school field trip to a paintball park, she mentions to Mr. O'Neill that the only thing she got out of her divorce were "the corns on my feet and a big, rash on my chest".

Janet Barch in fanfiction
Barch's hatred of the male gender and her relation to O'Neill, which contitue a main characteristic of this character and the show, has been endlessly explored in fanfiction.