Teacher’s a Porn Star
Last year a teacher was fired from our local middle school. I don’t know the whole story, but apparently she showed too much skin at a bar one night. The school principal happened to be there and witnessed it. I was shocked she was fired for that. Even if she stripped topless, it happened at a bar. On her off time. When she was out with girl friends. Middle school students can’t get in to a bar so it’s not likely any of them would have been subjected to it. And I think many of us have had one too many on a girls night out and done something we aren’t to proud of. But she was fired anyway.
And she wasn’t even a former porn star with a pornographic website currently on the internet.
But there’s a teacher’s aide in New Jersey that still has her job even though she is a former porn star with an active website. She also works with children at her local YMCA. As you can imagine there are some parents that are none to happy about this. But the school says they don’t have grounds to fire her because porn doesn’t show up in a background check and being a porn star isn’t illegal.
This bring up a lot of questions. Should her pornographic past keep her from working with children? Or does her previous profession have nothing to do with her current job? What rights does she have? Does she deserve the chance to prove she can be a mentor to children? After all, she isn’t a pedophile. She’s just a woman who had sex on film for money. And sex is a very natural thing. Although sex on TV isn’t really that natural.
Do her previous choice of employment mean she doesn’t have the morals to be a good role model to children today? Does being a porn star make you a bad person? Being in a porno isn’t illegal. It’s probably not something you want for your children. But then I doubt this woman is talking about her past to the kids at her school.
What about the fact that there are still pornographic photos of her on the internet? Even though she goes by her real name now (as opposed to her porn name) it’s possible a kid at that school could accidentally find her photos on the web. What then?
The way I see it, morals are far too subjective to use as legal grounds for who should and shouldn’t have a job.
Just because she was a porn star in the past doesn’t mean that should live with her forever. What about the people who have turned their lives around from far more harmful things, like drugs? Should they forever be denied any chance to improve society? Being in an adult film is not a detriment to society, nor should it be treated like one.
As long as she’s not advertising her former job in a classroom, it shouldn’t matter at all. Honestly, she may even have great advice for many young girls on how to deal with things like sexuality. Just because she was in a porno doesn’t mean she’s going to encourage promiscuous behavior.
To legally look at porn, you need to be 18. If the kids are hunting around online and looking for pictures of their teacher naked, then that’s the children violating the law — not the teacher. That’s a case where the parents need to set a foot down and stop it, not the principal. If the students are 18 (if it was a high school teacher), then they’re legally able to look at porn, regardless of who is in it.
I do agree with Paul. It is absolutely the duty of parents to set a foot on their kids and stop Porn if the kids are under 18/
I danced professionally for years. I’m not ashamed. If the subject comes up, I will tell my daughter the truth. Dancing wasn’t the worst thing I have done. If teachers are going to be fired for their extracurricular behavior, I wonder what that means for us parents who have a slightly irregular past? Am I still invited to PTA meetings? Is my daughter going to have to apologize for her mother? I wouldn’t have a problem with a teacher who has made some of the same choices I have made. Good teachers are hard to find. If my daughter is getting a quality education, I’m more than willing to overlook a few DVDA videos.
—Isis
This is too wild for me to even think about. If a teacher has her “portfolio” viewable on the Web and accessible elsewhere, I’d say it’s hard to justify hiring her. If another was just having a good time with the friend at a bar, getting a little ornery, no harm there. That principal seems a bit too puritanical for my taste.
Craig, you seem to be saying it is okay for a teacher to be an absolute perverted freak so long as no one finds out. That her portfolio is public is your concern?
On the other hand, if she did the same things (including stuff with donkeys I won’t even detail) but didn’t put them online, she should be hired?
I’m a firm believer that people are a lot more adventurerous behind closed doors than they let on in public. If you knew what your happily married neighbors did in the privacy of their bedroom, I’m not so sure you’d invite them over for coffee.
Unless the teacher is giving lap dances in the classroom, I don’t care what she does in her off hours. The teachers that I do worry about aren’t the ones doing internet porn. (Porn stars, hookers and strippers don’t give it away for free.)
The teachers I worry about are the ones that seem perfectly normal except that stay at school ‘helping’ students until long after it has gotten dark.
—Isis
Yes, Isis, you’re pretty much on the mark with my view, however you’re description is fairly hyperbolic. I’m saying that people’s private proclivities are their own business (so long as they are legal and not imposing on others’ health and well-being, e.g. assault).
However, if a teaching candidate has an adult entertainment past that contains a public and permanent record of “inventory” and is easily accessibile and viewable by students and parents, that would end her candidacy, at least if I were the hiring principal. People have every legal right to star in porn if they choose. They also have every right to expect that track record may…I say may… be a hiring obstacle in other professions.
Only ‘fairly hyperbolic’? I must be losing my touch.
—Isis
I say mind your own business I am a teachers aide and its none of anybodies business what I do in my spare time. Maybe the board should look in to their own past times…..They make too much money and we need to pay our bills too!! She didn’t do anything wrong I say go for it. Maybe they are just jealous, go find your self an exta job.
A agree with most of the comments on here. What a teacher chooses to do in his/her personal time outside of work is no one else’s business unless it is illegal or can be proven impair their ability to do their job or cause harm to their students.
Over the years I have become far more open minded on topics of sexuality and relationships. Monogamous relationships have been the only relationships that have been acceptable in our society for the several centuries. Only recently have gay and lesbian relationships been brought to light and our society and is rapidly gaining acceptance. Where do those of us that believe in polyamorous relations (not to be mistaken for polygamy) fall? What about sex workers that willing chose and truly enjoy their job in countries (ie: Australia, etc.) where being an escort or a call girl are fully legal? What about couples in the swinger lifestyle who are willing to trade sexual partners to bring out even greater sastifaction in their married relationships?
What right does one have to criticize people for their personal choices in relationships just because they believe in something that is just not quite considered “normal” in our society.
Getting back to what this whole thread was about, does the risk of promoting promiscuity and the potential positive merits of being a porn star really pose a threat to the livelihood of these children?
There are many incredibly successful yet promiscuous individuals in our society that no one even knows about. There are swingers that are bank executives to school teachers. There are polyamourous families consisting of highly successful professionals raising families amoungst them as a group.
How does this hurt the children? What is happening out there is real and the people doing it are happy. This information is simply reality.
So a student finds out that their teacher is a porn star and her interest in that profession is suddenly piqued. Is this a bad thing? Perhaps. Is this a good thing? I would say it is more good than bad and this is where some other factors come into play. Maturity level of the student is a key factor. Self confidence would also be an important ingredient required to make their decisions.
We want our children to live lives with open and accepting minds. Is being a porn star necessarily a bad thing? Is sexual promiscuity necessarily a bad thing? (Proper sexual health education for safe sex practices would be necessary of course.) Even if they choose that neither may be suitable for them, they should learn not to judge others that do live those lifestyles. Our society continues to be too closed minded. We still treat sex even as a couple behind closed doors to be a taboo subject. We need to open our eyes and minds to the possibilities out there to make all of our lives more fulfilling even if you decide that one thing is not for you, it doesn’t mean that we have the right to look down upon others with no respect because of the choices they have made that make them happy.
Living is all about happiness. All of us are dying… it started the day we were born and we need to enjoy every day of life that we have.
Light and Love
Journey: I agree with you more than I disagree.
Having owned and operated an escort service, I’m not sure it is possible for someone to ‘truly enjoy’ that job. The ‘willing choice’ is also a bit blurry.
‘Easy money’ is only easy for so long. After that it is a grind like anything else. Only, where your boss at the office may verbally abuse you and short your hours. As an escort the abuse is more often physical. On the plus side, the escort gets paid in advance so you’re less likely to get screwed out of your hours than in a real office.
—Isis