Teacher At Center of SCHS Cat Controversy To Return To Class; Resigns At End of Year

A teacher at the center of a cat castration controversy at Stephens County High School can return to the classroom Friday.

Thursday, the Stephens County Board of Education voted 6 to 1 to suspend teacher Daniel Hebert retroactive to November 7.

That means his suspension ended Friday (Nov. 14).

Last week, Hebert castrated two cats in an Animal Science class at the high school.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said this recommendation came from school administration following its investigation.

“The administration at the High School did a thorough investigation, taking into consideration all of the events that they were able to review, made a recommendation they brought forward to me,” said Dorsey. “I approved that recommendation and brought it to the board and it has been approved.”

The Board of Education then also voted 6 to 1 to accept Hebert’s resignation effective at the end of the current school year on June 30, 2015.

Hebert, who had withdrawn his initial immediate resignation letter earlier this week, submitted a new letter Wednesday, offering his resignation at the end of the current school year.

His letter made no other statement.

Jim Ledford was the lone opposing vote in both motions.

Ledford said he does not agree with the action.

“I do not think the mistake he made justifies the punishment,” said Ledford. “I do not go along with the five-day suspension and I do not go along with him having to resign at the end of the year.”

The meeting room was full this morning, many of them supporting Hebert and calling for his return to the classroom.

Wendy Dawkins said she fully supports Hebert.

“He is an awesome, engaging teacher who truly cares about his students at a time when there are teachers in classrooms without the passion or the gift of teaching,” said Dawkins. “I also fully support what happened in the classroom that day. I believe that the extremists who are causing this chaos are the kind of people who want to believe that their ribeye steak comes from a steak tree in the backyard and that when they drop their cat off at a neuter clinic, the cat has a magic wand waved over it and is then returned to them.”

Meanwhile, Len Stovall also called Hebert a wonderful teacher.

“The man is a tremendous role model to all of the students he has,” said Stovall. “He has a big impact on them. The things that they learn in an Ag setting, in Ag class, some people that are not in Ag, do not understand the purpose and the necessary steps that are taken in these classes to learn what people do and what farmers do on their farms every day.”

Dorsey said that while livestock castration may be part of an agriculture education, what took place in this specific instance does not fall under that curriculum.

“We do know that part of livestock management is the castration process for our food livestock,” said Dorsey. “There are certainly protocols and appropriate situations where that is demonstrated to students. However, concerning pets in a classroom environment, we would consider that an inappropriate activity. We would certainly understand if our animal science class was in the presence of a veterinarian conducting that, what we would consider normal practices.”

As for the investigation by Animal Control, Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter Director Jeff Roberts said it should be complete in the coming days.

At this time, the only details released by Roberts regarding the specifics of the investigation are that two cats were castrated, that they had not had rabies vaccinations, and that a student was bitten.