Larry Neace Update

Larry Neace, the Gwinnett county, Georgia, high school physics teacher fired for lowering the grade of a student who slept in class and then refusing to raise it when ordered to do so, is appealing the decision to fire him, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (registration).

Michael Kramer, an attorney for Larry Neace, filed a motion for reconsideration with the board Monday. The motion argues the punishment was too harsh and did not fit the facts of the case. The board could have suspended Neace for 60 days, Kramer said.

. . . In a six-page motion, Kramer wrote that the board lacked good cause to fire Neace.

Kramer said that the board's policy was ambiguous and that Neace's rules never had been challenged. He also cited Neace's teaching experience as a reason to keep him.

Kramer said he still plans to appeal the Gwinnett board's decision to the State Board of Education.

The Gwinnett Daily Post adds some information that, objectively, supports Neace:

Neace’s attorneys, appointed by the Georgia Association of Educators, asked the Gwinnett County school board to reconsider the termination and consider another punishment, citing Neace’s “unblemished” 23 years of service.

“He had never been disciplined for anything and had nothing but satisfactory evaluations in those 23 years,” said a document sent to all of the board members and the school system’s attorney. “The obvious lack of any past incident in Mr. Neace’s employment is a clear predictor of the complete unlikelihood of any future events.”

Neace said his attorneys will also file an appeal with the Georgia Department of Education before June 6.

The story was covered on NPR this past Monday by the Atlanta affiliate in a story you can listen to here. I think it's a fair wrap-up of the tale, and you'll get to hear Larry Neace defend himself. He says that the class in question had 20 minutes left before the bell rang, and so he told the students to begin an assignment to be turned in the next morning; he adds that every student knew his policy against wasting time in class. To boot, a student says that many of her peers go to sleep in their classes, including some who sit in the front row. Neace, it appears, was doing what he could to get his charges to participate in class, but the County didn't agree with his tactics.

Neace's tale has received international attention, as the Globe and Mail has a story today that paints a sympathetic picture of the dismissed teacher. In fact, this is the best single story I've found on the whole sorry tale, and I urge you to read it in its entirety. It's also notable that the reporter, William Lin, quotes Michael King, who blogs at Ramblings' Journal, as a source, an excellent sign that some of our Canadian friends understand the importance that bloggers can play in producing a more accurate story:

Some on-line commentators have echoed the sentiment:

"This is a case of a pampered football player and a school administration whose priorities are completely screwed up. The principal is obviously more concerned about this football player than about education and commensurate discipline," wrote the Ramblings' Journal, an on-line conservative blog.

Lin's piece ends with this key information, which I hadn't read elsewhere, and an apt observation from an education professor who gets it:

The footballer is actually a good student, Mr. Neace said. And because the assignment held such small weight, it wouldn't have changed his grade-point average.

Sally Zepeda, a teacher-supervision expert at the University of Georgia, said that although she thinks the school has the legal right to fire Mr. Neace, it shouldn't have.

"One of things that is very sad is that a teacher is fired for upholding a classroom rule that has seemed to work."

I'll stay atop the Neace story as his appeal progresses.