Judges say middle school teacher can’t shake porn past, must not return to classroom

[obeygiant]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

What does her past matter, in this case? When I was in middle school we had a young, very attractive teacher. There were plenty of "rumors" (more like passed-around fantasies) about how this teacher was having sex with other teachers and/or students. There were stories of students dropping their pencils in the hopes that the teacher would helpfully pick it up for them - bending over in the process.

Basically, if my teacher had been in a porn production, I can't imagine that it would have changed the way that the male students were regarding her already.

It sounds like what people really want is to ensure that students won't fantasize over their teachers. Perhaps we should only have male teachers to teach boys, and female teachers to teach girls? Or maybe female teachers must be forced to completely cover up and show no skin - hey, since naturally pretty faces are a problem, we could even have them wear a burka, like they do in some of those Middle Eastern countries!

You're probably withdrawing from that last suggestion (I hope you are). So what's the real issue here, and where do we draw the line?

The difference between fantasizing over an attractive teacher and this case is that students can go find her movies and watch her **** in a pornographic movie. I guess thats where the judges in this case drew the line. What baffles me is that so many here compartmentalize teachers and porn stars and and think there is no problem while failing to see the larger issue of why a former porn actress as a middle school teacher would raise flags. Then instantly go to extremes of "should they wear burkas" or "americans just hate sex" for reasons why someone who agrees with the decision would think that way. This has nothing to do with religion, it about how this particular person's job is compromised due to a past career in pornographic movies.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Originally Posted by SilentPanda

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...7b8_story.html

As it happens, you can get disqualified from becoming a teacher for all sorts of reasons, just as you can get disqualified from all kinds of other professions for various different reasons.

I don't know the specifics of this case, and, for something like this you really have to know the details, but, people should realize that (in the U.S.; other countries may be different), in employment law, you can pretty much be disqualified (even for life) for a particular job if it prevents you from meeting job requirements that are stated up front. And of course, in the U.S., different states differ. Some states have more worker protections of various kinds than other states.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by obeygiant

The difference between fantasizing over an attractive teacher and this case is that students can go find her movies and watch her **** in a pornographic movie.

I don't see the issue, really. My classmates and I were already fantasizing over my attractive teacher; if we had a pornographic film of her, what would that have changed? We'd be able to use our eyes instead of our imaginations? We already knew the anatomy of the female body, and I'm sure that many of us had already found our way into accessing other pornographic films. My guess is that any act on film might have been tamer than what some of my peers were thinking up.

Originally Posted by obeygiant

What baffles me is that so many here compartmentalize teachers and porn stars and and think there is no problem while failing to see the larger issue of why a former porn actress as a middle school teacher would raise flags.

Why should it raise flags? If this teacher stated an agenda of wanting to push all of her students into the porn industry then yes, that should raise flags. But for simply being featured in porn?

As I've said earlier in the thread, I wouldn't approve of anyone close to me entering the porn industry. I don't think it's a particularly good field to be in, and I feel that it's demeaning to many of the women who work in it. But I also recognize that there are a variety of reasons why someone might go into that industry. We don't know why she entered the industry in the first place. What we do know is that she's trying to get out of it, to enter a more respectable field. So what's the big deal?

Originally Posted by obeygiant

Then instantly go to extremes of "should they wear burkas" or "americans just hate sex" for reasons why someone who agrees with the decision would think that way.

I brought up the burkas because you specifically stated that her "effectiveness" in teaching "hormonal tweens" would be compromised if they knew about her erotic past. To me, it sounded as if you were saying that the students would fixate on her as an object of sexual desire if they knew that she was in pornography, with the logical counter-point being that a porn-free past would mean that no "hormonal tween" would think of their teacher in a sexual manner. As I (and a few others who have had attractive teachers) have mentioned before, this is not the case. Hormonal boys are going to fantasize over women no matter what, and they don't need to see them in a pornographic film to do so.

So getting to the root of your concerns about "effectiveness," your concern must really be that you don't want boys to be fantasizing about their teachers, right? It seems like a valid concern - it's nothing new, of course, but sexual desire might distract some boys from what the teacher is trying to teach. This is where my remark about burkas come in. Boys will fantasize about almost any woman, but if you hide enough features then there's not much to go on. Oh, they'll probably fantasize about the girls sitting next to them, but maybe we can cover them up, too...

Maybe I've misunderstood your point? You've stated that her past of being in porn represents a travesty of some sort, but it isn't clear to me why that should matter now, since she is no longer participating in the industry. You've stated that her being in pornography would reduce her effectiveness with her students, but haven't explained why nor reconciled with the fact that teenage boys are going to fantasize over attractive women even if they haven't seen them naked or engaging in sex. These really seem like non-issues that ignore what's going on in reality and cast judgment unfairly.