How many parents want their kids to potentially end up in the army, or dancing in a gay burlesque show? Hell, when I was in college, I knew a professor who paid his way through college working as a male prostitute. This woman has done absolutely nothing wrong, has broken no laws, and does not deserve anybody’s judgment. The whole point of prejudice is the idea of judging somebody before you should. How about pre-judging somebody who you should never judge?
You know, after thinking about this story a bit more, I’ve thought of another reason why this situation bothers me so much.
We hold teachers to much higher standards than… well, anyone else, actually. This teacher’s been fired for something she did eleven years earlier- what she did isn’t illegal, and harmed no one… yet she’s been fired because she might be a bad influence on her students.
If teachers are held to such a high standard, why the hell aren’t they paid accordingly?
Sorry. K-12 is a different kettle of fish than college. Isn’t that the very essence of the OP?
Are you seriously thinking that community responses to an Army vet are similar to an ex-porn star?
You’re incredibly naive if you think the only threshold for people judging others is if their actions are legal. And guess what? Teachers are judged. It’s part of the job.
Did you actually read my post? I stated that ideally, these cases should be decided on an individual basis. But schools operate in a community context. It’s difficult to get bond issues passed. Is it wise for school leaders to expend political capital defending the actions of former porn stars? I don’t think it is.
I know this is an opportunity to demonstrate how tolerant and libertarian we are, but it might be interesting to filter the OP through a practical lens.
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Heh, nice point.
The problem is, that the community is not always right or justified in feeling that a certain thing is so horrible that if a teacher has done it or experienced it in the past then that teacher is not fit to teach.
Frankly, these people who have done these horrible things are already in the community; already interacting with your children. Prostitutes, drug users, porn stars, swingers, Kenny G fans . . . they are all around us. Now, I can understand to a degree sheltering children from some things as they are happening, but to ostracise members of the community for past behavior is closed-minded and hypocritical.
Also, for better or for worse, in this day and age, it’s becoming more and more unlikely that any given teacher doesn’t have some compromizing photos/videos of him/herself floating around. When every single person in college has a camera on hand (on their phone), and the ability to share photos via the internet . . . well, I think it’s going to be harder to ignore or hide the wild days of youth, or to pretend that they didn’t happen twenty years on.
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this before, but one of my teachers in high school appeared in Penthouse in the late 70s or early 80s, I forget which. (I graduated in 92). Every year it would be a whispered scandal as the students “discovered” her picture and every year it would get passed around and yes, it was her. And every year by Christmastime it was forgotten and we all got on with the learnin’. She was, although a rather odd bird, one of the best teachers I’ve had, and I see that her rankings and comments on those teacher grading sites are almost unanimously positive.
Things like this are only as big a deal as the parents and administration make them. In my case, no one even dignified our “find” with a word, much less Shock and Outrage. As a result, we got over it.
Teens want to Shock and Outrage their elders. If we don’t let their shenanigans bug us, they stop doing that and go out and buy blue hair dye instead.
In closing, let me just mention that once upon a time, women would hide the fact that they had gotten married from their principals, because a married woman, one who probably had *sex *with her husband, was an unfit role model and would be fired from a teaching position.
I was in HS a long time ago, but I haven’t forgotten that daydreams about screwing the pretty teachers were standard equipment for every boy, right from the first spark of puberty. (I suppose the boys who were gay were dreaming about the men teachers instead.) Was it distracting? Yes and no. We’d be hanging on Mrs. Malbone’s every word, as we were staring at her lovely bod.
Would it have been different if I had seen Mrs. Sweetcurve on video, happily humping Rod Plumstick? Not a lot. In our minds, we had seen all the cute lady teachers naked and screwing us.
What shocks me in this thread is not any of the opinions expressed about a HS science teacher being an ex-porn star (although I think some of the opinions make more sense than others), but the reservations expressed by Pocaccho and Lightnin’ about a HS science teacher being religious.
If she teaches her subject responsibly, I don’t give a shit what her own personal religious beliefs are, any more than I give a shit what X-rated films she made eleven years ago. If she understands that religious beliefs are not appropriate criteria for evaluating scientific theories in research or teaching, then it shouldn’t make a damn bit of difference to anybody what religious beliefs she personally subscribes to.
My reasons for objecting to a religious science teacher are pretty much due to the persecution of science from the established churches. Much of what religions teach (okay, at least Christianity) is directly at odds with what science has proven.
The adult film industry, on the other hand, isn’t historically known for suing teachers who teach evolution.
… or Mrs Croft for English. She also was a porn star, if only in my imagination.