Published: August 1, 2000

Reefer Madness: January 1997

Not too long ago, Sherry Hearn moved from a busy residential neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia, to the outskirts of town. Fruit trees dot her quiet one-acre lot, and a towering oak draped in Spanish moss shades the back yard. French doors leading from her bedroom open to a mile-long, spring-fed lake.

It's the perfect place to retire, and Hearn, 52, and her husband, Dick, 53, are more than ready for their golden years. Dick's been an electrical contractor for nearly three decades. And Sherry? Well, she'd rather not tell you what she does for a living. She's afraid to, really. Seems like every time somebody makes a big deal about her past, trouble starts. And for the first time in what seems like forever, she has a steady paycheck, health insurance, and a full pension within reach. Why risk that?

But Hearn will tell you one thing: Though she spent 27 years at the head of a classroom in Georgia's Savannah-Chatham County school system, and though she was once named the district's top teacher, she's not teaching. Hearn is perhaps the best teacher ever fired on account of a half-smoked, hand-rolled joint.