Public treats porn performers, nude models like criminals

Stacie Halas committed no crime, but a school district fired her from her job as a middle school teacher because it discovered that she had performed in pornographic movies years earlier.
A three-judge panel for California’s Commission on Professional Competence on Tuesday sided with the school district that fired Halas last April.
America is puritanical when it comes to sex and nudity. It punishes women who have appeared in adult films, posed naked or worked as strippers. Male porn performers seem to get more lenient treatment.
The news media enjoy covering these stories because they know sex sells and can attract viewers and readers.
America used to treat adulterers, unwed mothers and homosexuals the same way. Imagine a school district trying to fire a teacher for being gay today.
As a country, we need to get over our sexual hang-ups and not treat porn performers and people who’ve posed naked as pariahs.
Here are some recent cases where the public has mistreated women for their porn past:

Science teacher loses her job because of porn past

Stacie Halas, 32, was fired from her job teaching science to middle school students in April after Oxnard, Calif., school district officials uncovered her porno past.
Halas appeared in porn films under the name Tiffany Six during an eight-month period between 2005 and 2006, three years before she started teaching science at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School.
Students apparently discovered her porn past and alerted other teachers, the Associated Press reported.
School officials should be more concerned about juveniles watching porn than about the sex life of a teacher.
At one point, profanity was etched onto Halas’ classroom window. If it were a gay slur, that vandalism would be considered a hate crime.
“Many adult performers work to put themselves through school – especially now when support for education has hit an all time low,” Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, told AVN. “Ms. Halas worked in a legal industry in order to supplement her income, allowing her to go to college and better her life. Unfortunately, instead of supporting the responsible decision that she made, the Oxnard school district decided to discriminate against her. This was a poor decision; Ms. Halas does not deserve to be terminated. On the contrary, she deserves our utmost respect and support.”
Teachers being outed for their porn past is nothing new, LA Weekly reports in its article, “Porn-Star Teachers Are Nothing New: Our All-Time Top 5.”
The Tiffany Six story also was covered by the New York Daily News, the Daily Mail, International Business Times and Mstar News.

Teacher quits after porn past revealed

Science teacher Tera Myers, 38, quit her job last March at a St. Louis high school after being put on administrative leave following the discovery of her work in porn films.
Once again, a student discovered that Myers had made adult movies in the 1990s using the name Rikki Andersin.
Myers lost a job teaching at a Kentucky high school in 2006 for the same reason, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York Daily News.

Ukrainian porn star seeks EU asylum from persecution

Anastasia Grishay, a Ukrainian porn star known as Wiska, hopes to become the first in her profession to be granted asylum in the European Union because of her job.
Grishay, 26, claims she is being persecuted in her home country because of her work in porn films. She is requesting asylum after fleeing to the Czech Republic in 2010.
See articles from December by the Daily Mail, the Sun, Kyiv Post and International Business Times.

‘Pawn Star’ Olivia Black fired for nude photos

Reality TV star Olivia Black was fired from the History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” show after her past as an adult model for goth-pinup site SuicideGirls.com was exposed by the National Enquirer.
Black modeled nude for SuicideGirls under the alias Belladonna. She joined “Pawn Stars” in early 2012 for season five of the reality series set around employees at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. She was fired in December after the nude photos came to light, Xbiz reported.
After she was canned, she returned to SuicideGirls to do a photo shoot, according to Fox News and the Inquisitr.

High school guidance counselor fired over sexy lingerie photos

Women don’t even have to pose nude to get fired by prudish bosses.
Tiffany Webb, a guidance counselor at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers in Manhattan, was fired after 12 years on the job because photos of her in lingerie and bikinis from her early career as a model were discovered on the Internet, the New York Post reported in October.
Webb, now 37, posed in seductive undies between age 18 to 20, but stopped modeling several years before she became a city teacher in 1999, the Post said.
Webb is now suing the Department of Education, charging wrongful termination, sex discrimination and violation of her First Amendment rights. She has since changed her name and has taken a teaching job in New Jersey. The story also was covered by AVN and Xbiz.

Houston Chronicle fires writer who moonlighted as a stripper

Houston Chronicle society writer Sarah Tressler was fired from her day job last March after a competing publication outed her for moonlighting as a stripper.
She later filed a gender discrimination claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (See original and follow-up stories by Jim Romenesko and articles by Jezebel and Xbiz.)
On the plus side, she turned her blog Diary of An Angry Stripper into a book. And the New York Daily News reported Jan. 15 that she’s taken a reporting job with the San Antonio Express News covering cops and crime.

Citizens raise ruckus about ex-porn star joining rescue squad

Ex-porn star Harmony Rose, 29, generated controversy last July when she joined the Cave Spring Rescue Squad in Roanoke County, Va.
She was working as an EMT for the squad when her porn past was discovered, WDBJ and the Huffington Post reported.
At the time she was working under a standard six-month probationary period, Xbiz reported. No word on whether the probationary period is over or whether she will be retained.

Minnesota high school refuses to let student bring porn star to prom

High school students have brought sports stars and other celebrities as their prom dates, but the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District in Minnesota refused to allow student Mike Stone to bring 19-year-old porn star Megan Piper.
The school thought Stone’s choice of a porn star as a date was inappropriate and would be disruptive, the Huffington Post reported.
Stone, 18, didn’t go to his high school prom last May, but the Daily Show got him a date with Piper and filmed a funny segment about the controversy, the Daily Dot reported. You can see the Daily Show video here.

Parents raise hell after Sasha Grey reads books to first graders

Parents complained after mainstream actress Sasha Grey (“Entourage” and “The Girlfriend Experience”) read books to first graders at a school in Compton, Calif. Grey also happens to be a retired porn star. (See articles by TMZ and Gawker.)

Organizations refuse charitable donations from adult entertainment companies

Last March, the cash-starved Little League baseball organization in Lennox, Calif., refused to take $1,200 donation from a gentlemen’s club, AVN reported.
In October, Susan G. Komen for the Cure rejected a donation from adult video site Pornhub.com. (See articles by AVN and Xbiz.)

Press gives female political candidates a hard time for posing for Playboy

Why does the press make such a big deal about female political candidates who once posed nude for Playboy? Because sex sells.
Last fall, two political candidates made headlines when it was revealed that they had posed in Playboy years earlier.
Amy Biviano, a Democratic candidate for the Washington state House of Representatives, had posed for Playboy’s October 1995 “The Women of the Ivy League” feature. (See articles in Wizbang, Seattle Weekly and Xbiz.) She lost the election.
Kerri Hoskins-Branson, a Democratic candidate for the Kane County, Ill., board, had posed for Playboy’s “Book of Lingerie,” “Girls of Summer,” “Bathing Beauties” and “Nudes.” (See articles by Xbiz and Kotaku.) Branson also lost the election.

Double standard for men

The Miami-Dade Public School system fired substitute high school teacher Shawn Loftis in January 2011 after learning of his career in porn as gay performer-director Collin O’Neal. But a state education commission ruled in March 2012 that Loftis can still teach in Florida, according to Click Orlando and Xbiz.
Last March, it was revealed that Jonathan Daniel Brown, one of the stars of teen comedy “Project X,” had appeared in a Bang Bros. porn movie called “Nerd Hunting.” TMZ reported that Brown did the porn movie to get some “on-screen experience.” He also “banged three smoking hot chicks” in the movie. Because he’s a man, the press exposure wasn’t a bad thing for Brown. (See articles by TMZ and AVN.)
In November, Cortland County, N.Y., District Attorney Mark Suben revealed his past as ’70s porn performer Gus Thomas. The story blew over and everyone has moved on. (See story by Xbiz and AVN.) However, he was the butt of a few jokes by Jay Leno.

Photos:
Poster for documentary “After Porn Ends” (2012);
Video screen grabs of Stacie Halas, a.k.a. Tiffany Six, from the New York Daily News and FilmDrunk;
Tera Myers, a.k.a. Rikki Andersin;
Anastasia Grishay, the Ukrainian porn star known as Wiska;
‘Pawn Star’ and Suicide Girl Olivia Black;
High school guidance counselor Tiffany Web;
Journalist and stripper Sarah Tressler;
Ex-porn star Harmony Rose;
Porn star Megan Piper;
Sasha Grey reads to first graders, photo by TMZ.