Teacher Who Did Porn Loses Employment Appeal

Educators walk a fine line between their personal and private lives. Teachers’ extracurricular activities can have a direct impact on their profession, especially when administrators disapprove of previous job choices.

One California teacher is still struggling to regain her place in the classroom after she was fired for appearing in pornography in her past. The 32-year-old turned to the legal system in order to fight her termination from Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard.

The woman lost her appeal to return to the classroom after a recent decision by a panel of Oxnard judges. Those judges concluded that the woman’s previous career in pornography would have a negative effect on her ability to teach. The woman had apparently talked about being a teacher during the introduction for one of the sex tapes, which the judges found particularly distasteful.

The ruling follows an October argument from district representatives that concluded that the woman was rendered ineffective as soon as her students found the videos. Students began referring to the woman by her pornographic stage name, according to administrators, which was distracting.

When the videos surfaced, students etched profanity on the woman’s classroom windows. Teachers had showed the videos to administrators using their smartphones, according to media reports.

Still, the woman did not participate in pornographic ventures during her teaching tenure in Oxnard. The woman only filmed the material during a short period in 2005 and 2006 when she ran into financial troubles, according to testimony.

It is not clear whether the woman will seek a future appeal in this case.

The woman in this case was gainfully employed in a sanctioned, if somewhat controversial, industry in her past. The woman was deemed ineffective as both a teacher and a role model simply because of her earlier professional decisions. Her lawyer believes she is a representation of many people who have done something that was not illegal in the past.

Source: CBS News, “Stacie Halas, fired Calif. teacher with porn past, loses appeal,” Jan. 16, 2013