A Standout Teacher Who Also Stands Out

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: September 7, 2005

HUNTINGTON, W.Va.

MS. RAY stayed. Twenty-three years, Irene Ray has been teaching at Huntington High, in this small city near the Kentucky border, and once again she was back, for another first day of school. "They changed the hall-pass system again," she said, leafing through a stack of first-day memos with titles like "Asbestos Notification Form." It was 7:15, and she was rushing. "They're going back to the way they did it five years ago."

Ms. Ray never expected to stay, and yet here she was again as the 7:55 bell rang, sipping a Diet Coke, nibbling an Atkins breakfast bar, and greeting students with her usual "Good morning glories." For years she had planned to escape to the big city - Washington, San Francisco, New York. "The U-Haul would be here and I'd be gone," she said. "I wanted to leave so bad. I had the exact date in mind."