More than you think. Hell, my dad who was about as conservative as they come and guaranteed never smoked a joint was for legalizing marijuana. William F. Buckely Jr. (then editor of the National Review) was also for legalizing marijuana. His dad, who started the National Review, I think was famous for sailing his boat into international waters to smoke a joint but otherwise I doubt smoked it, was for legalizing it.
Anecdotal maybe but these are (or rather were) editors of one of the premiere conservative rags in the country. I am willing to bet they are not alone.
As for how they promote it why does that matter? As long as they are not breaking the law and as long as they keep it separate from the classroom why would it matter?
Regardless of any requirements or stipulations for employment by the school district, keep in mind that she must also possess a valid credential to be hired by the school district. Often state commissions on credentialing have vaguely worded “morality clauses,” by which her credential could be revoked simply because she has publicized her past activity while possessing the credential. The school district then would not fire her, but simply not be able to continue employing her.
In her statement she admits to doing illegal things and is not repentant about them. She states the government should not prohibit her from doing so. Regardless of whether prostitution should be legal, that’s not the lesson to teach kids. Kids should learn that you follow the law even if you don’t agree with it. If you disagree, try to get the law changed. Her lesson is, if you don’t like the law, go ahead and do it anyway. That’s likely why she got fired.
Usually when people get cleaned up from a crime or drug background we accept it because the person admits he was wrong and he shouldn’t have done those things. He admits it was a mistake and we move on. She is not doing that. She feels justified in making her choices. Personally, I don’t have a problem with work as a prostitute. But if you’re teaching young kids, you need to be a good role model of someone who follows the laws of society.
Well that is adding on to what you said. You complained that she was saying you can get out, look, I did. That’s exactly the same as a recovering crack addict saying you can get out, look, I did.
Sure. But you repent of your illegal actions and you shut your mouth about them when you have a job in the public sector. You don’t say “No big deal, kids. I broke the law, it was great, and I’m not sorry about it. I’ll never do it again, though…I hope.” And you don’t act as a spokesperson for the actions. At least, you don’t if you expect to keep your job.
Kids hear things. They’re gossip machines. We’re not the only message board on the internet that’s heard about this woman, you know. It’s in the news. It’s going around the neighborhood, for sure. Anything that happens with this case, the kids will find out about it.
So when majority opinion is that what you’re doing and saying is wrong, you deserve to be fired. It’s the parents’ school district, not hers.
Well, your initial objection to this woman was that she…
When I asked abotu a recovering drug addict, who would be defending drug use jsut the same way by saying you can successfully enter drug use and leave it, you responded that you…
I am saying you are going further here. It’s not just the saying I did it and you can get out, the standard you put on the ex-escort, but also you are saying the drug dealer would have to actively advocate the legalization of drugs.
Sure, if that former ganster/drug addict then wrote an article saying that being a drug using gangster was a choice that it was never the state’s obligation or right to protect him from becoming a drug abusing gangster and believed this strongly enough to risk his new life to protest the shutting down of a section of Craigslist that facilitated drug abusing and gang activity. Then, yeah you’d have a comparable situation. But, this is not a story of redemption.
With that said, i don’t know if the parent’s really give a shit how she feels about her former prostitution, they are just concerned about their kids being taughtby someone who once sold sex for money.
People who seek moral role models for their children in public schools teachers are simply incorrect, given the widely divergent view in the public sphere of what constitutes improper moral behavior.
I think it depends on what she is standing for. If she was standing for strongly held racist beliefs, it would bother me enough to take my kids out of that school, I don’t think conviction in your beliefs is a good thing if your beliefs are not good things.
I don’t hold her past against her and I would be perfectly fine with her teaching my kids whatever she was good at teaching. But, I don’t think prostitution is like experimenting with homosexuality during college, you don’t just try it out to see if you like it and I don’t think I would want my kids taught by someone that thinks that prostitution might be a part of finding yourself.
I’d have similar concerns if a teacher said “As long as I feel it’s safe, I speed when I feel like it or it’s convenient. It’s not up to the government to tell me how fast I can go.”
I have nothing against speeders teaching my kids. It’s the attitude of “I get to decide which laws I want to follow” that’s the issue.
So I’m supposed to teach my fifth grader values that say “selling sex for money is bad” and I should not be bothered by the fact that their teacher is publicly saying “people should be able to sell sex for money” because its my fault if I don’t teach them well enough that they are immune from the effects of having a teacher figure tell them sex for money is OK?
Noone is objecting to her because they think she might charge the kids for sex, and I personally don’t object to her past as long as it stays in the apst but I object to her advocating for it today.
I would feel the same way about a teacher advocating for the legalization of the recreational use of heroin or cocaine.
I think it would be more on point if you changed marijuana to heroin. I don’t think I would be bothered by my kid doing a little pot any more than I would be bothered by them drinking alcohol but I would be bothered by them doing heroin or selling sex for money.
Is there any evidence whatsoever that she is teaching the joys of prostitution to her elementary school students?
If not then where do you draw the line on what teacher gets fired?
You may be opposed to legalizing cocaine but maybe I am for it.
You may be opposed to the democratic candidate for senate in your state but maybe I am for that candidate.
You may be opposed to women showing their ankles but maybe I am for it.
So tell me, as long as the teacher is teaching the curriculum and apparently doing it well and not breaking any laws who are you to say the teacher should be fired because you do not agree with her?
Want to take your kids out of the public school and put them in a private one to avoid that teacher knock yourself out.
I don’t know if she should be fired but I wouldn’t want my kids taught by her and i would probably signa petition to get ehr fired if soemone started passing one around. Teachers are more than merely people who talk at the front of a class. I think that teachers are role models. What she does outside of the classroom affects her students almost as much as what she does inside the classroom if she does it publicly enough.
She has a right to do what she wants and I have a right to try and get her fired or is she the only one that has rights?
You guys make it sound as if she is standing president of the “unrepentant whores for legalization of prostitution” club. In reality, she wrote a letter to the editor talking about something she did experimentally in the past and stating an honest opinion. That’s it.
I think this could be a healthy lesson for students- while you should follow the law (and this person did decide to follow the law) our legal system makes room for healthy discussion and debate of the usefulness and validity of those laws.