Miss Rita L. Desjardin is a fictional character created by Stephen King for his horror novel Carrie. In the film versions, she was portrayed by Betty Buckley (renamed Miss Collins) and Rena Sofer. She was portrayed in the musical by Darlene Love (renamed Miss Gardener).
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In the book, she at first feels the same disgust everyone feels for Carrie White. However, when she witnesses Carrie being humiliated by the other girls in the locker room after gym class for her hysterical reaction at her first period, she realizes that Carrie didn't even know what a period was and takes her side. She wants to punish the girls that taunted her by having them suspended for three days and barred from the Spring Ball, but the principal orders a week's boot-camp style detention in the gym; refusing to attend detention will result in suspension from school and banishment from the prom. In Desjardin's view, the only reason the administrators didn't go along with her proposed punishment is that they are all men, and thus didn't really understand just how nasty the girls' behavior had been. Lead bully Chris Hargensen skips the detention and thus is barred from the prom. The principal reprimands Desjardin for cursing at Chris, but stands by her when Chris' attorney father threatens to sue unless Chris is allowed to attend the prom and Desjardin is fired.
At the prom, she talks with Carrie about her own prom night (she was several inches taller than her date and felt awkward, but remembers it as a beautiful event) and later, congratulates her for being voted Prom Queen. Chris has rigged a cord connected to two buckets above Carrie and Tommy, and pulls it when they ascend the stage, drenching them with pigs' blood. Miss Desjardin runs to help Carrie, who pushes her aside with her telekinesis. Once outside, Carrie uses her gift to wreak havoc on the school, then leaves for home, destroying everything she passes. Miss Desjardin is one of the few survivors of the "Black Prom". One month after the catastrophe, she retires from teaching, saying she is consumed with guilt for not doing more to help Carrie, and that she would rather commit suicide than teach again.
In the 1976 version of the novel, Miss Desjardin is renamed Miss Collins, portrayed by the notable actress Betty Lynn Buckley. Unlike the book, Miss Collins does not first experience revulsion toward Carrie, as she is suggesting in the beginning that the students pass the ball to Carrie in their volleyball game. After the locker room incident, she becomes sympathetic and attempts to help Carrie overcome her awkwardness and connect with other students. During the prom, Miss Collins is trying to move the unconscious Tommy, along with another teacher and three students, when Carrie (who believes she was laughing at her but this was only in her mind) pulls her across the floor and pins her against the wall. Miss Collins then screams, "Carrie!" to no avail. Carrie smashes a basketball rafter into her, crushing her pelvis and stomach area and killing her. Many people believe that Miss Collins shouldn't have been killed because she didn't deserve to after her nice behavior to Carrie. Notably in this version, the story she tells Carrie about her prom experience differs from the novel, when she tells her that her date was the captain of the basketball team who was 6'7" tall, instead of being extremely short as in the novel, and the downside of her experience was from her having to walk a few miles to the prom wearing 3-inch spike heels when her date's truck broke down.
In Carrie - The Musical, Miss Desjardin becomes Miss Gardener, a composite of the gym teacher and the principal. She opens the show with the song "In" where she orders the girl PE students to "Work, work, work, work!" After the "Shower Scene" Miss Gardener becomes much more sympathetic toward Carrie and even sings "Unsuspecting Hearts" with her to get her to accept Tommy's prom invitation. Miss Gardener was a chaperone at the prom, and died in Carrie's onslaught. When Carrie is attacked with the blood, Carrie imagines Miss Gardener laughing at her so Carrie takes her revenge on her and she is killed along with everyone else. Along with Tommy Ross, Carrie begins to realise what terror she has created which prompts her to calm down after she kills Miss Gardener. She was portrayed by Darlene Love in both the Stratford-on-Avon and Broadway production of the musical.[1]
In the 2002 version, she is portrayed by Rena Sofer and her name is spelled "Desjarden". After finding out the girls not only humiliated Carrie in the locker room, but vandalized her locker and slipped tampons in it, an angry Desjarden hurls a bag full of tampons at them the next day before announcing that they've been sentenced to a week of detention, telling that skipping the punishment would result in three days' suspension and banishment from the prom. Chris, refusing to take her punishment, storms out. The principal reprimands Desjarden for this, but stands by her when Chris' father threatens to sue unless Desjarden is fired.
At the prom, she talks to Carrie about her own prom date -- in this version, she says her date carried a fake gun to imitate James Bond but he ended up arrested. As a result she remained alone at the prom until her father came and took her home. She also tells Carrie that things change, and not always for the best: the pretty, popular girls will be fat, cute boys will be bald, and the miserable ones might have a happy life. When Carrie begins destroying the gym telekinetically, in revenge for being drenched in pigs' blood, Miss Desjarden sends two students to carry the unconscious Tommy and leads an escape through a vent (rather than the fire doors, as in the book). She is the last one to leave and is nearly electrocuted, but survives, and reports the events to Detective John Mulcahey (David Keith), revealing her realization that Carrie had telekinetic powers.
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