Priest to Withdraw from Public School Teaching Job

A Roman Catholic priest says he plans to withdraw from a substitute teaching job in the Wood County public school system.

The Rev. George Nedeff tells the Parkersburg News and Sentinel that he decided to concentrate on his duties as a substitute priest with the Catholic Diocese of Charleston-Wheeling.

Nedeff says his decision isn’t related to school officials’ denial of his request to wear his religious habit in the classroom.

The 75-year-old priest says he wants to spend whatever time he has left serving the church.

Schools Superintendent John Flint says the district’s attorneys recommended that Nedeff’s request be denied. He says the attorneys indicated that allowing Nedeff to wear the vestments in the classroom would violate federal law.

Flint says he’s disappointed to lose Nedeff as a teacher.