A middle-school science teacher fired after students learned
she had appeared in pornographic movies had hoped not just to get her
job back, but to set a precedent for people looking to escape an
embarrassing personal history.
A three-judge commission
put a decisive stop to both, saying firmly and unanimously that Stacie
Halas should not be in the classroom.
"We were hoping we could
show you could overcome your past," Halas lawyer Richard Schwab said
Tuesday. "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."
Judge Julie Cabos-Owen said such a past matters in an age when technology makes porn easy to access and hard to bury.
"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," Cabos-Owen said in
the 46-page decision issued Friday by the Commission on Professional
Competence.
Halas, 32, was continually deceitful about her nine-month career in porn before she went to work at the school, the judges said.
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.
Student
claims that the teacher was moonlighting as a porn star were initially
dismissed after school officials said they couldn't find any images of
her on the Internet – but they were using the school's computers, which
don't allow access to porn.
Teachers then showed administrators downloads of Halas' sex videos from their smartphones.
In
hearings, former assistant principal Wayne Saddler testified that at
the start of a sex video, Halas talked about being a teacher and he felt
her effectiveness in the classroom had been compromised.
After rumors of her performance surfaced, profanity was etched on Halas' classroom window, a teacher testified.
Schwab
has said Halas did not star in pornographic movies while teaching in
any district. He said she took parts only during an eight-month period
from 2005 to 2006 because of financial problems after her boyfriend
abandoned her.
District superintendent Jeff Chancer applauded the commission's ruling.
Halas'
decision to "engage in pornography was incompatible with her
responsibilities as a role model for students," Chancer said in a
statement.
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