Jeff Neal poses with his book "What a Long Strange it's Been" at his mother’s home in Penn Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

Active shooter plans have become just as important as lesson plans in today’s schools.

A Knoch High School graduate recently published a book about his 34 years as a teacher, coach, counselor and administrator at a Florida middle school. A fatal shooting and its aftermath are part of his story.

Jeff Neal’s “What A Long Strange It’s Been” chronicles his experiences dealing with basketball teams, young gang members and students casually admitting they’d dropped acid 50 times before their 17th birthday.

And Neal writes about the fatal shooting of a popular teacher and assistant basketball coach on the last day of school in 2000.

At Knoch, Neal played on the basketball team that he said “almost made it to the state title” in 1981.

Neal spent 34 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator.

Neal gained an associate’s degree from Butler County Community College and a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia.

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