Over the last decade politicians have learned the hard way to respect the career-ruining power of the internet. Anthony Weiner was dethroned for tweeting a pic of his wiener, and candidate Krystal Ball’s political career was torpedoed before it even started by an old picture of her posing with a dildo. The lesson: Do anything dumb and sexual that could end up online, and it’ll haunt your career forever. It could be years, but eventually it’ll pop up and bite you in the ass.
Turns out the principle applies to regular-person jobs as well. A California court has ruled that a middle school science teacher who was fired when her former porn career was discovered can’t have her job back.
HuffPo notes “Stacie Halas was fired in April from her job as a science teacher at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard after online videos of her in porn were discovered by students and teachers.” By which they meant: “Stacie Halas was fired in April from her job as a science teacher at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard after online videos of her in porn were discovered by students and teachers.”
School administrators couldn’t find Halas’ videos online because firewalls were blocking their computers. But teachers [let's face it—students] pulled up the vids on their smartphones and Halas was promptly fired.
She appealed her case in court, but a commission of judges has ruled the school had grounds to fire her. “Although her pornography career has concluded, the ongoing availability of her pornographic materials on the Internet will continue to impede her from being an effective teacher and respected colleague,” the commission said.
It’s actually a pretty sad case—Halas acted in porn for nine months when she was in financial dire straits between 2005 and 2006 and promptly quit when she got back on her feet. It doesn’t sound like a life choice so much as an act of desperation. Halas’ lawyers expressed their disappointment, saying, “We were hoping we could show you could overcome your past. I think she’s representative of a lot of people who may have a past that may not involve anything illegal or anything that hurts anybody.”
So you can’t teach middle school if you’ve been in porn—but apparently you can be a U.S. District Attorney. In November DA Mark Suben admitted he was in porn in the 70s. People were freaked out about it, but he didn’t step down.
January 17, 2013 at 7:24 pm, William Crafton said:
Alan, great article.
But it has roused a rant out of my cluttered storage unit of a brain.
This attitude we have as Americans, this "holier than thou" mindset, is a huge problem. The self-righteousness associated with this type of thinking is dangerous. Obviously, she is trying to reform her life and contribute something to society other than taking a load on the chin, and here we are, lambasting her for it. We, as a culture, usually love the comeback story (especially with celebrities and former celebrities), but we have treated Ms. Halas like a common criminal; and from what I understand, she hasn't hurt or killed anyone, or stolen from the school she worked for. She is being judged solely on her past actions, and not the current work she is trying to redeem herself with. Whether these actions were pornographic or not, whose mind was truly in the gutter on this one? The students who just happened to google her previous work, or the School Board, frustratedly trying to pull up her nudes over the same network the school uses?
Funnily enough, what does this situation say about our culture if these kids easily recognized a porn star, by name, in the 7th grade? Furthermore, what sort of lackadaisical authority would allow middle-school kids to pull up porn on their smartphone to begin with? Not a one complained when they could watch her get fucked online for the low, low price of $9.95 a month, but if she taught empiricism to a group of 8th graders, well, she had better be ready to face the arbitrary wrath of petty, selfish people that have, most likely, jacked-off to her nude pictures online since the last time she saw them.
AIN'T LIFE KEEN?