Larry Neace Update, VII

This morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Gwinnett County School Board will not reconsider its decision to fire former Dacula High physics teacher Larry Neace:

Lawyers representing Gwinnett County's public school system said school board members won't reconsider their decision to fire a high school physics teacher.

Lawyers for Larry Neace filed a motion this month asking the school board to reconsider the dismissal, arguing the punishment was too harsh and did not fit the facts of the case.

But Monday, lawyers for the school system filed a motion saying board members are not authorized to reconsider such decisions. The motion said the correct course of action is for Neace to file an appeal with the state Board of Education. Michael Kramer, one of Neace's attorneys, has said they will appeal to the state.

Neace, who had taught at Dacula for 23 years, was fired May 6 because he lowered a student's grade for sleeping in class. Board policy forbids teachers from lowering grades as a form of punishment. School officials said Neace was asked to restore the grade, but he refused, and was fired for insubordination.

Neace said he knew that using grades to discipline students violated board policy, but he thought sleeping in class was an academic, not a disciplinary, problem. For 10 years, Neace had a policy of reducing the grades of students who wasted time or slept in class.

So, next stop, Georgia's State Board of Education. Let's hope they do the right thing for Larry Neace and, in the long run, that they set a precedence that will benefit Georgia students for years to come. Retaining talented teachers is difficult under the best of circumstances; firing them for running afoul of power-hungry principals and legalistic school boards is intellectual and societal suicide. Georgians deserve better than they're getting from the Gwinnett Inquisition.