Teacher Loses Job Over X-Rated Video



I am sort of pulled in two directions on a story that is making national headlines.  A high school science teacher, Tera Dye, from Missouri has quit her job due to a student exposing an x-rated video of her from years past.  Evidently she is a wonderful science teacher who made a terrible mistake.  I have read in several news articles that she has been quoted as saying she 'is from the wrong side of the tracks and made many poor decisions in her life'.  She also has said that she absolutely loves teaching and anyone can walk into her classroom and see that. So, how did a use-to-be porn star get hired as a teacher?  Her acts were not illegal, they were just ethically and morally wrong. Therefore, when the school system did background checks, this information was not revealed.

The catcher here seems to be the moral part, I suppose.  We as teachers are held to a higher standard.  Every year here in GA we even have to watch an ethic's video and sign off that we did indeed watch it.  Why am I a bit torn in this situation?  The school hired her after the events had already occurred.  She had apologized years earlier about her wrong decisions and said she had gotten her life on track.  I just hate that she made such a poor decision early on in her life and she is now having to live with the consequences years later, especially when she appears to have straightened her life out and even has a family.

Where is the line drawn though?  I have known several teachers and even an administrator that were arrested for DUI and were able to keep their job. I even saw the mugshots!! That is actually an illegal act and what she was doing was not illegal. Morally wrong, yes.

Should she have just chosen a different profession from the beginning?  Should she be forgiven, let the past be forgotten, and let her teach? Would you feel differently if the videos didn't exist?  I'm curious, what do you think?

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