Teacher Out Of Job After X-Rated Video Surfaces

"She's not the person she was 10 years ago," Chilcoat said. "We've all done things that we regret, except hers is on tape."

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article: http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4859482



Teacher Out Of Job After X-Rated Video Surfaces
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May 4, 2006, 09:33 AM
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(PADUCAH, Ky.) -- A teacher in western Kentucky has been suspended and will not have her contract renewed after administrators found out she appeared in an adult movie more than a decade ago.

(snip)

"Your presence in the classroom would cause a disruption to the educational process," McCracken County Schools Superintendent Tim Heller wrote in a letter to Dye. "I fear there would be less than a serious approach to schooling by students who viewed the video or know about it."

Dye said she suffers from bipolar disorder and agreed to appear in the 1995 flick because she had no home or income and her disease wasn't being treated. Dye said she spent one day in Los Angeles filming the movie and did not use her real name.

"I absolutely 100 percent regret doing that," Dye said. "I've always tried to look ahead and not focus on it. But I wasn't diagnosed at the time."

Dye later joined the Army and served in a military police unit at Fort Lewis, Wash., before going to college and becoming a teacher.

(snip)

"She's not the person she was 10 years ago," Chilcoat said. "We've all done things that we regret, except hers is on tape."

(snip)

link: http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4859482

Since when is it grounds for termination to participate in a lawful profession?

Jay

Mark Blankenship, a Murray attorney hired by the Kentucky Education Association to represent Dye, said the superintendent's decision may be challenged.

So yes, they probably CAN terminate her for this.

If I sign a teaching contract with such a clause and commit a moral offense I can be terminated. But can I be terminated for something I did prior to signing the contract?

But I do know that they are doing background checks on all NEW teachers, plus the ones like me who have been teaching for years. And I have heard more than a few horror stories lately about long time teachers being fired for past transgressions. So I am not surprised by this story in the OP.

Pornography is not illegal.

Jay

Drinking isn't illegal either. But a teacher I know was reprimanded for working part time in a bar. Another teacher was teaching in a dry county (where no alcohol is sold) and her neighbor called the school district and complained when she saw the teacher carrying a 6 pack of beer into her house.

That morals clause covers a lot of bases.

The bar that I hang out at has three part-time bartenders who are teachers. Of course, in NJ, there's no dry counties or anything.

Life is pretty strange in the bible belt.

strippers or go go dancers as they were called was a kindergarten teacher during the day. NJ doesn't allow nudity in bars, you must have your bust and bottom(with the exception of a g-string)covered. No pasties either. Most dancers dress like most people on the beach. That's why NJ has nudie clubs that don't server liquor, just soft drinks. Never worked in one of those, who needs a bartender to mix juice or soda? The so called bartenders in those places dress like the dancers in bars used to. Plus you can be 18 to get in to work or watch.

Where in god's name do you live?

Stupid assholes. With the current paucity of teachers, they don't have a hell of a lot of room to be firing anybody for a non-issue like this. The last time I checked, pornography wasn't a crime, but then again, give it a couple of months, and our "Homeland Security" fucks will be all over it. . . .

I was a Certified staff with a Specialization (not a teacher, but a "Specialist") at a couple of public schools in 2 states. I never had a "morals clause" anywhere I worked, nor applied to work.

Of course, personal modesty in apearance, and behaving appropriately, is required in written and unwritten terms. And I know that when you apply for a state teaching license, you are subjected to a lot of moral scrutiny about your background.
But...Kansas may be a lot a like Kentucky.

A public librarian friend (and thus technically a state employee) was denied a promotion because she is not married to her partner of several years: The state where she works includes a morals clause in its laws, not necessarily a contract situation.

Hence, they act as if it isn't.

I`m looking for it.:popcorn:


:rofl:

"Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot,
blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: - lucky bastards"
... George Carlin

See latest edition here: http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/

I think it's from George Carlin - received an e-mail of George Carlin jokes and it was included.

I'll have to notify the guy who e-mailed me the jokes that George Carlin had nothing to do with them.

So much for turning your life around then getting kicked back down.

they preach and preach that you need to redeem yourself...that you need to better yourself...but when people do ..they punish them for their past sins or vices or even jobs...

The woman made one dumb movie and moved on with and bettered her life....yet she can't escape it..

this story just pisses me off.

He spent 20 or more years as a drunk, 2 or more drunk driving tickets, possible cocaine bust, yet he's their hero.

Imagine a room full of Beavises and Buttheads and being their teacher and an ex-porn star and they KNOW.

:headbang:
Maybe she can go on Disability?

I know that's not a one to one comparison, but I also know few here would think it appropriate to discharge a gay teacher because of the potential disruption that knowledge would have for students. I don't think that discovering information of LEGAL activity from a decade ago in somone's past should be treated that way either.

There are a lot of things that give lame kids ammunition for disruption - that doesn't mean the solution is terminating teachers for things they did 10 years ago.

Even after the adults forget, this story will be told and retold, getting more fantastic with every telling.

I don't know how popular the movie was that she was in was or how big her role was, but this is different from someone who was in hundreds of movies over several years, having the main role in many of them.

I can just see a "re-release" with School Teacher pasted across the front of the DvD

Until some asshat decided to fire her.

Considering that she has probably dealt with dangerous criminals, she is probably quite capable of handling a few "Beavises and Buttheads."

Indeed, if she was a popular teacher, I would feel sorry for her replacement because these students might take their frustration out on the new teacher.

that you are what's gone wrong with this country. Is there no justice anymore? Whatever happened to minding your own business? Live and let live? :eyes:

I'm not sure it's such good idea to have teacher there that made a video like that, like the Superintendent said it would be a disruption.

Would you have known of this tape? Do you think her students would have known if the superintendent hadn't made this an issue?

The woman must have told someone about the tape, who relayed that info to the superintendent. I doubt that even if you saw the film you would know it was her.

to happen to recognize her in just this one.

Makes me wonder if they fired the wrong person?

Had he not said anything. But since the superintendent had knowledge of it, I do think he made the right decision.

anything about sex?

Let me clue you in. They have sex. That's where little teachers come from.

This doesn't even fall into the catagory of "moral turpitude" (if that is used anymore) because it is not a current activity.

to keep it in their pants and to have kept it in their pants in the past.

and this how he punishes her for saying no?

The article gives no indication about how the superintendent discovered that she had been in an adult film and 10 years hence, that discovery doesn't seem so "accidental".

BTW If the article doesn't say how the Sup. found out, how can the discovery seem either accidental or non-accidental?

"that sure looks kinda like Ms Whatshername".

They'd have never known for sure, without this asshole move by the superintendent.

She sure seems to have turned her life around. Military, college, good job.

That's one of the things that are wrong with our country. We expect everyone to be perfect. A man can say, commit a burglary, or get caught selling a small amount of weed in college 30 years ago. Turn his life around, become a wealthy philanthropist, but if he decides to run for office, he's still a burglar or drug dealer.

potential for "disruption" than one who got naked for the camera.

All she needs to do is take her meds... like a diabetic takes their insulin. It;s a mental illness, not a personality disorder.

There are different categorizations of bi-polar disorder from light to severe.

And Kay Redfield Jamison, author of the famous book An Unquiet Mind is PHD Professor at John Hopkins School of Medicine and diagnosed with the most severe kind of bi-polar disorder - she went through the agnozing process of finding the right medicine, commits to taking it for the rest of her life, and leads a life about five times as productive as I do.

this is not an issue. except to those who do not understand the illness.

By your standards every teacher who is a minority teaching in a largely white area, openly gay or transgender should be fired as well.

Give me a break!

Since then, she honorably served her country, acted as a law enforcement officer, became a certified teacher, and apparently is a good enough teacher that she would have had her contract renewed.

Would you like to be judged now by things you did when you were younger? LEHGAL things? Let alone illegal things.

It's not like she's making porn movies now, or talked about it to her students or other teachers.

What this is saying is: if you do something you regret, too bad. Don't even try to put it in the past and go in another direction. Oh yeah, great thing to teach the kids...

It's even worse because of the bipolar thing -- ask Patty Duke about second chances.

Even most items on your credit report don't last that long!

These standards are quite flexible.

Because of a 10yo tape that no ones probably ever heard of?

I hope she sues their asses off.

I mean, really, how could anyone KNOW, unless some one of those upstanding supervisors, either on the school staff or the superintendent's office, wasn't waxing a carrot in front of a warm VCR????

Teachers contracts have morals clauses in them. They can fire us anytime we do something immoral. Now she may be able to claim this was in the past and she has not done any porn films since she began teaching. The judge may rule in her favor if you look at it that way.

But you can't assume teachers contracts are the same as other professions, because they do have a morals clause.

Hope they don't fire them all

parents, I learned things when Dad lit the candle on the baby grand and called it a 'piano bar', and saw their fellow teachers at parties and barbeques conducting themselves in ways that would have depopulated the teachers' lounge in a heartbeat if they'd been reported to the principle - oh, that would be the principle who wrapped his Jag around a tree doing 120mph (he walked away from it, astonishingly).

I never saw teachers as anything but 'just folks'.

why couldn't she just deny that it was her...?

as it is- from the phrases being used, it seems like a lawsuit is in the works, and justifiably so.

there are strict laws to be followed, and every company that makes adult movies must have on file proof of age/I.D. etc of any actors/actresses. chances are this movie is currently available so the info is out there to be verified.

Yes, the 2257 regulations state that producers have to keep records on file with proof of age. But these records are never reveled to anyone without a court order.

That was a big part of the problem with the recent changes in the regs. The feds now wanted to interpret everyone from the distributors to retailers as "secondary producers" who also needed that info on file -- can you imagine if every podunk store had every performers real name and address for every movie they sell? Thankfully there is an injunction against enforcement at this time.

Drunk driving. Insider trading. Failure in every facet of his life. Yet he is President of the United States. All forgiven. All ignored.

Yet a school teacher, likely down and out on her luck and just trying to earn a living, makes a porn movie and it comes back to haunt her.

What Bush did was illegal. What the school teacher did was not.

Why the double standard? This is America?

Turn the other cheek, people. Be a Christian, forgive, and turn the other cheek.

Can we see it?

and the forgiveness of past sins. So much for learning the hard way and moving one's life away from danger and into respectability. So much for having an adult's abilities thrown away because of a stupid thing done when s/he was very young and didn't have all the facts or was mentally ill with something very treatable, as is the case here.

I hope she sues the administrators into dumpster diving. This is completely inappropriate, unfair, and illegal.

If they have a problem with her performance NOW, that's another thing. If not, I'm sure there are things from their own youths that they'd love to keep buried. Let's hope a few people who know what hypocrites these administrators are come forward with appropriate stories.

What exactly is the "danger" of making an adult movie? The adult performer community has a lower instance of STD's than the general population.

Or is the "danger" that 10 years from now some close-minded bigot will fire you for making a film?

Because she was poor, that's different than making a movie for fun or for a little extra cash.

Is that different than being "forced" into a job at Walmart because she was poor?

10 years down the road when they discover she bagged cheap crap at Mall Wart.

I think working in the sex business should be destigmatized, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen anytime soon. :shrug:

by making statements like:

If she was basically forced into porn Because she was poor, that's different than making a movie for fun or for a little extra cash.

1. How is she "forced" into porn? Do merchants have a new policy that I'm unaware of? Cash, Credit, or star in my porno?

2. How is it different then if she did it for fun? Are you saying she was poor so that means that it isn't because she was just a slut?

So I will admit you have a point.

I know I have my own biases towards sex work, so there you have it.

You're also going to make more money and probably be treated better on a porn set than bagging shit at Mall Wart.

Or that you'll have a spouse who wants to run for office and an old boyfriend will surface and offer to sell you "that" videotape for a bargain price of a hundred thousand bucks.

Remember, we still live in a country with a strong double standard: women who have unmarried sex and like it are sluts; men who do are studs.

I never saw the reason for shame around a normal human drive and a normal human function, but then I'm not religious.

Yes, it is dangerous.

been fired too.

And a male politician's career would be ruined just as surely.

The moral of the story is:

Don't VIDEO TAPE YOURSELF HAVING SEX, STUPID!
It will ALWAYS be frowned upon in polite society.

Americans are fucked up Puritans when it comes to sex.

At the time she made the movie, she had no income. I am sure that the prospect of not knowing where her next meal was coming from was terrifying for Dye. I suspect that many members of "polite society" have done worse or would do worse under the same circumstances.

Then why shame her behavior in your original post?

So much for learning the hard way and moving one's life away from danger and into respectability... thrown away because of a stupid thing...

It seems you live the double standard as well.

but there are plenty of people in this country who will, and worse.

Get it yet?

That she shouldn't have made the movie because some people don't approve?

It's not a dangerous industry to be involved in. There's a major difference between being a porn actor and being a prostitute (which is dangerous, because we don't legalize & regulate it). I also don't think it's dishonorable to be involved in the porn industry.

Other than the first paragraph, I agree with you, but porn isn't dangerous.

has a special video collection?

picks up a little dough from TV interviews. I think she really represents a success story. Ovecoming bipolarism, poverty and a porno past is no easy feat. Too bad the school district did not find a way to show some compassion.

but I'd be extremely pissed if that's how this teacher came to lose her job.

at her military inprocessing station....either that or she was highly functional at the time of her service. Bipolar disorder is a disqualifier for military service.

:rofl:

Was her husband, perchance, Phil McCracken, the famous gay porn star?

she should probably be stoned as well as fired.

Sid

:P

Julie Ashton got it right: she was a teacher first and then a porn star.

The teacher did nothing illegal. There are no grounds for termination. And I've got to seriously wonder how they found this out to begin with.

Sounds like someone really does not like her, and is trying to get her fired.

She's in western Kentucky. If she is a good teacher, she can get a job in a more contemporary, more progressive location.
Or, this could be her signal to get out of Education.

But I don't see how people can say this is religous hypocrisy. I guess it depends on the age group of the children she is teaching, if they are at puberty and beyond I would agree that it could be a distraction. Who knows how the superintendent found out about it, I don't think it's relevant really.

All I know is that from junior high on I was a walking hard on, and I would have had a tough time concentrating on anything but the teacher if I had seen something like that.

If the superintendant is concerned that teen boys will spend more time gawking at her instead of focusing on the class I'd have to say he's probably right.

what a bogus argument. If a woman is hot the teen age boys will focus on her if she's a fucking nun. The superintendant is going to find himself in a big pile of litigation. I hope she wins millions.

FILM 10 YEARS AGO'?

No one would have known. No one did know.

And haven't you seen any of those PBS Specials about kids and the sex they're having? I bet they could teach her a thing or two.

Unless there was some blackmail type thing going on...

...of a thoroughly amoral country and its citizens unable to deal with sex...the act that produced them in the first place.

Violence...fine. Racism...its okay if cloaked in certain code language. (In fact you could build a whole political movement on it...) Sexism...no problemo. A public discouse and legal system built on obfuscation and lies...good old American values. But God forbid that we "wantonly" partake in sexual pleasure, for fun or profit, unless it is to tease and titillate to sell everything from Swiffers to Toyotas. Call out the Elmer Gantries for a good dose of hellfire and damnation, sinner be gone, scarlet letters and sideways glances.

This is one fucked up society...and not in the good sense.

How can people discuss a porn video without posting a LINK, or even the TITLE so we can search for it ourselves?

:argh:

I'm pretty sure she looked a little different 10 years ago. How the hell could they prove it was her?

someone who she had confided in, who dropped a dime cuz he was pissed off.

can flaunt herself all over the tv and our beloved junior. But this woman is fired for a mistake she made ten years ago?

I hope she sues the living shit out of the Kentucky school system.

What slime would destroy a human being's life like that?

He was the theater teacher and he had the front cover framed in glass behind his desk. Gawd, I wished I remembered his name....

She was probably around 50, but still hot. I'm not sure what year she was in Playboy, but she admitted to having been in it.

No big deal

:P

when I was in junior high. It was not a well kept secret, but nobody seemed to care. Nobody seemed to take issue about it. He was pretty well liked by the students.

upon edit: Roon, your teacher actually displayed his playgirl cover shot--at school--NO WAY.

has the video btw. I dont have the link.. but its a few pages back.

at one point or another. =p

on edit...nope...wrong teacher

sorry!

too funny

"Your presence in the classroom would cause a disruption to the educational process," McCracken County Schools Superintendent Tim Heller wrote in a letter to Dye. "I fear there would be less than a serious approach to schooling by students who viewed the video or know about it."

How in the world did anybody happen to find out about this? Did the teacher SHARE this information with her class or something? Is somebody spending a little TOO much time watching pornos? Doesn't this superintendent understand that by spreading this information (instead of keeping it private) he is himself causing "disruption" to her students and to the educational process? Not to mention the fact that there is, as far I know, NO laws against making or starring in porno films (although that may not be the case for long if Alberto Gonzales' "vice squad" has its way). "Moral clauses" or no "moral clauses," it's not as though she just starred in the movie while she was teaching. We're talking 10 years ago. It seems to me that they should have made it clearer in their contracts exactly how far back one has to account for any so-called "immoral" behavior. How in the world could anybody but Jesus himself withstand THAT kind of scrutiny? Shall we start digging into this superintendent's past now to see if HE has any "skeletons" in HIS closet? So much for trying to turn your life around in THIS country. At one time I thought that people were given "second chances" and rewarded for trying to better themselves and their communities and we're not even talking about ILLEGAL behavior in THIS case! Unbelievable!

It is illegal to make films with explicit sexual acts in every state except Ca.

It is technically illegal to sell adult films in some 40 odd states.

give him a proper English caning.

Her resume can be found here:

http://coed.murraystate.edu/tericka.dye/

And she held high honors her senior year from the Geo-sciences Department at her university.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, there is dismissal clause in Kentucky based on the grounds of moral code, but this is so post-mortem as to be laughable. Not only is the hypocrisy palatable in this district, but the de facto "sex workers are bad/mentally ill/immoral" crap I am seeing in this thread (and in America in general) is grotesque.

Yep, she readily admits that she took a job in the sex industry to make some cash pre-diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but where in the hell do people get off saying "she makes one mistake and..."? It was what it was, and perhaps if the misogyny of this country weren't so deep-seated, she wouldn't have to be apologetic for it--and we wouldn't be punishing her, because guess what kids--she didn't harm anyone. We have no problem celebrating youth, tits, and ass...but you'd better be Becky Home-Ec-y if you are going to join the FABULOUSLY COMPENSATED and PROFESSIONALLY RESPECTED employment of education.

And yeah, I have a stake in this; I am a professional educator. I also have friends who are educators who have been heroin addicts, alcoholics, and some who are sexual "deviants" (gays, lesbians, swingers, BDSM participants, etc.) who could be fried because of their pasts (and presents). I had a colleague of mine get burned at the stake because a former student (wrongfully, all charges were dismissed) accused him of statutory rape. The media had a heyday with it because he was also a Buddhist and had a *gasp* altar (wherein he was promptly accused of witchcraft). The district put him on administrative suspension, and then refused to give him back pay when he was vindicated because of the "stain".

Judge her based upon her professional integrity and ability to educate. I hope she sues the hell out of these bastards. No one was hurt...well, except for her over ten years later.

:hi:

i think that state has more to worry about than a teacher who changed her life. ya who found out she did a porn tape?

and what's the chances of one of her students even seeiing this tape? at least before they fired her over it. It's okay for the superintendent to view porn and whine about it, but god forbid someone does one video.

porn. If confronted, she wouldn't even have to lie -- just say "Isn't it amazing how everyone in the world has a double" and leave it at that. Nobody could PROVE it was she, short of coming up with tax records.

Or so it seemed. I remember little about it except having noted there was a church on almost every corner, and a bar kitty-cornered to match them.

Not a place I care to re-visit.

How many students would have access to this movie?

maybe it was the Abu Graib or Gitmo videos used to sexually humiliate Islamic prisoners...hmmm not sure

and I thought, and thought, and tried to remember... and then I knew.

Seriously, now:

She looks, superficially, a bit like our very own poster here at DU, Binka (well, in the photo in the OP, anyway). Son Ben, who was seriously wounded in Iraq, etc. That may be why she looks 'familiar'.

Well, she does to me. Flame away....

...didn't your Christ preach forgiveness?

And didn't he hang out with an ex (?) sexworker?

It sounds like she did an exceptional job cleaning up her life, why punish her now?

What's the name of the film and where can I download it?

I mean, somebody must have watched it for it's intended purpose...did that person get suspended?

:evilgrin:

if there are pictures or film/video of you doing something that's not "in line" with your current occupation/station in life, it's ALWAYS possible to have it pop up and harm your life.. It's not "fair", but it happens..

I wish more young people could look ahead and see how things they do when they are young, CAN and DO resurface later on..

A lawsuit would only heighten the issue ..

if the teacher was now married with kids, but she was fired for having a lesbian relationship 10 years ago?

Funny how easy it is to shame a person for choices that you may not personally agree with.

teachers ARE under scrutiny , now more than ever, and once it became easy for people to google just about anyone or anything, our pasts may not be as "past" as we would like them to be.

School boards and parents are hard to read these days. On one hand they look for the best and the brightest, but they also demand sainthood in the bargain.

people will always be afraid to divulge too much personal information, but they can never stop others from searching..

My teachers were so boring, we had NO interest in anything about their personal lives.. We did not even know if they were parents themselves :)

Times have certainly changed ...

You work your ass off for a bunch of ungrateful kids and administrators, you're harassed by angry parents who think you should be raising their kids, you get paid peanuts and you can't live your life the way you want to. What a great profession. No wonder qualified teachers are becoming hard to find.

and whether your students are able to get into good universities. If this teacher was any good at her job, then the school district suffered a great loss because there is no guarantee that her replacement will be as good of a teacher. Considering the location of the school and the publicity surrounding this case, this school district might have a very difficult time finding an adequate replacement.

- "Has this disclosure impacted her effectiveness as a teacher and her ability to do her job"? It's really unfortunate but the answer to that question is YES.

The knowledge that their science teacher was a porn actress is more than just a little distraction to a bunch of teen boys. And, probably a distraction to their parents, too. Suddenly Dad's would be falling over themselves to attend the dreaded parent/teacher conferences (!) and mother's would be hovering over their little boys waiting for her to prey upon them.

She should get out of there for her own safety because someone is bound to accuse her of worse if she doesn't. If she wants to keep on teaching, maybe she should dye her hair, change her name and relocate someplace else.

that she was a former performer if the school admisitrator hadn't outed her.

My guess is he was tipped off by a former ex-boyfriend. No way that she would have been recognized from some most likely obscure 10yo movie. Hell, I wouldn't recognize Jenna Jameson if she walked into my store.

She is covered under the disabilities act. Her superintendent just made her a rich woman.

this thread implies that she turned her life around by leaving doing porn videos and taking a job where they take away your individuality and you are expected to kill people because someone else says it's a good idea

then she gets a job where they can look back at something that happened 10 years ago and say you can't keep it

sounds like the place where she received the most consideration as a human being was the porn job

I want my country back! :kick:

her from making a living at teaching. She was physically and mentally ill and needed the money. I can't blame someone for going this route in an economy that pays unskilled workers so poorly. She wasn't breaking the law. These insane morals clause agreements are just another reason to fire at will, IMO. Why don't they say what Jesus said: Go and sin no more.

can you imagine the ass-wipe that made this public?? -- the kids today can run circles around teach's>