January 16,
2013 (OXNARD, Calif.) -- 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.
Schwab said
Halas "was being honest and forthright, but was embarrassed and humiliated
by her past experience in the adult industry."
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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