Teacher fights for job over topless photos online

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The school district said the photos were inappropriate and violate the "higher moral standard" expected of public school teachers. As a result, she's become an ineffective teacher, she was told as she was escorted out of class last month.

The photos came to light as a result of a feud over ceramics equipment with another art teacher, according to sworn affidavits. Students who had seen the pictures showed the teacher, who then notified school officials.

Colleagues and students dispute the district's characterizations of Hoover.

And

Hoover said Friday the photos are art and makes no apologies.

"I'm an artist and I'm going to participate in the arts," Hoover said. "If that's not something they want me to do then I want to be told that. I don't feel as if I was doing anything that was beyond expectations."

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This could have been the same dilemma I might have faced the first year I was teaching if the show I was rehearsing hadn't been cancelled. The project had nothing to do with work at all; I was acting in a play slated to be performed well outside Baytown which required me to be naked for a short scene. The show met all my criteria for onstage nudity: it was non-exploitative, absolutely needed for the story, and it was for a good script. I had no reason, artistic or otherwise, not to do it. Of course, I was slightly worried that it might be an issue for my new job, but, I thought, that's none of their damned business.

But, fortunately for me, I guess, it never came to that.

This is an absolute outrage. Never mind, for a moment, that this is an art teacher, and that she describes the photos as art. It simply doesn't matter if a teacher wants to put topless photos online. She can do that. Parents, administrators, other teachers, and any other would-be moral policemen who have a problem with that should just shut their damned mouths.

This whole "higher moral standard" sophistry is pure bullshit. Let's cut the crap and call this what it is. It's not about "higher" morals; it's about Christian morals, as interpreted by some Christians. Face it: if you interpret the Bible literally, the human body is obscene. Once Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge, the first thing they understood is that they were naked, and that nakedness is bad--they were falling all over themselves to cover their privates with fig leaves. So, okay, a certain strain of Christian morality straight-up asserts that nudity is immoral. But who the hell is the school board to impose such religious views on their employees on their own time? Maybe they'd have a point if she was pasting nude pics of herself up on the classroom wall, but this is entirely different. And so what if they were on the internet? Big fucking deal; welcome to the Global Village.

There is absolutely no good argument that can justify any retaliation at all from this woman's bosses. It's just none of their fucking business. This really pisses me off.

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