Larry Neace Gets a New Teaching Job

You'll remember Larry Neace, the Dacula, Georgia, high school physics teacher who was fired this past spring for demanding that a football player stay awake in class. (I posted on Neace many times; see especially this post, and this one.)

Great news: he's been hired to teach at Apalachee High School in Winder, Barrow County, Georgia. Here's the AJC's take on the story:

Neace will teach physics and physical science at Apalachee High School in Winder, said Lisa Leighton, spokeswoman for the Barrow County school system.

Neace said he plans to attend teacher pre-planning meetings at the school next week. Barrow County students return to school Aug. 1.

"I feel like I'm walking on a cloud," Neace said. "I will miss my students and my colleagues from Dacula [High School], but I left the school in a bad situation. Now I'm walking into something really fantastic. I'm really, really looking forward to it."

Neace plans to meet with Apalachee High administrators next week to discuss his long-standing grading policy, which led to his dismissal from Dacula High. Neace taught at Dacula for 23 years.

"If there is a problem they have with it, I will modify it," Neace said.

Barrow County lies just to the east of Gwinnett county, where Neace taught for 23 years. This map shows both Dacula, Neace's old haunts, and Winder, where he'll begin teaching next month. The proximity means that Neace won't face the expense and trouble of relocating.

Clearly, the folks in Winder knew a good teacher when they saw him, and they should be applauded for picking up Neace after he was treated so shamefully by his former employers. His addition to the faculty at Apalachee speaks well of that school's principal, who through his action demonstrates that, unlike Dacula principal Donnie Nutt, he has no problem hiring smart teachers who enjoy teaching smart students. The unprofessional, anti-intellectual atmosphere fostered by Nutt hasn't polluted neighboring school systems, thankfully.

I'll continue to follow this story as it develops. The next big step for Neace, other than reporting for his new job, is his August 16 hearing before the State School Board, where his lawyers will appeal his dismissal.

Update: Here's the web site of Apalachee High. Note that it's a huge new building, which is no surprise given the explosive growth of the Atlanta suburbs over the past few decades. The principal is Dr. Dennis Clarke, who appears on this site, and this one.