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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Neace to Get a State Hearing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I predict national media coverage for this one. Fired Gwinnett County physics teacher Larry “Doc” Neace will get a hearing with the state school board. Here’s the story.
In case you managed to miss the story, the Gwinnett school board fired Larry Neace for insubordination after Neace refused to restore a student’s grade on a lab report. Neace said he dropped the grade, because the student fell asleep in class. Gwinnett has a policy against lowering grades as a form of discipline. Neace said he’s been dropping grades for years as a way of reminding students they have to participate in class. He said he spells out his policy to students at the beginning of the year.
It’s amazing that such a much-ado-about-nothing incident - the student’s overall course grade was not affected by Neace’s actions - can get this far. But Neace has stirred up a lot of support from former students who say he’s the best teacher they ever had, current students and parents who say the student should take his lumps, former and current parents who say the Dacula High School principal is the one who needs reigning in.
The story has also appealed to those who say the lengths the student’s parents went to so their son’s grade would be restored is an example of what’s wrong with today’s parenting. Well-intentioned Moms and Dads blindly defend their children without regard to the bigger life lessons kids need to learn.
What is it about Larry Neace that has captured such an audience?
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