Letter from Dacula High School Graduate Re Larry Neace

The following was emailed to me by a person who graduated from Dacula High School in Gwinnett County, Ga., within the past 15 or so years. It sheds more light on the saga of fired physics teacher Larry Neace, about whom I wrote here and here.

This is, of course, only one source, but I think it highlights several important points that the firing of Neace illustrate: the presence of some poorly prepared teachers who're also coaches (unfortunately, not a rare occurrence anywhere); the quality of Neace's teaching; and what may be an administrative prejudice against "smart kids" and their favorite teacher. I have no way of verifying the charge that the student may have cheated, as it came from the public comment section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I graduated from Dacula High School . . . and I just wanted to say that there indeed is a very pronounced degree of favoritism towards football players in particular at that school. My family moved to Dacula from (up North) my senior year and was totally dismayed with the poor quality of the teaching staff and the blatant preference football players were afforded. I was reading the Atlanta Journal & Constitution comments section regarding this story, and a student that was in this class claims that the kid in question was constantly slacking and would get the answers from a buddy - basically cheat - which would explain the "perfect" grade on the assignment even though he slept through the lesson.

I didn't have class with Doc but many of my friends did (the "smart" kids) and I remember quite clearly their respect and admiration for him. He was, at the time I attended, the only male teacher at the school not referred to as "Coach So-and-so." My Psychology "Coach" Dunnigan called me "stupid" in front of the class, but he didn't know which form of the word "there" "their" or "they're" to use in a sentence; my Civics "Coach" Mac asked me to label the first 13 colonies for the class because he didn't know them and I was "from up there."

I could go on with a whole litany of pathetic excuses for teaching, but I think you catch my drift.

I wrote an email to the DHS administration, and plan to contact the board as well, saying that the sad thing here is the students are the ones who will suffer the most from this firing. Good teachers are few and far between at Dacula, and they just tossed out one of the best that school's ever seen. I don't know how they can live with themselves.

Update: The Dacula grad who wrote the message quoted from above writes to add that a brother played football at the same high and agrees "wholeheartedly" with the message's content.