A teacher from Oxnard, Calif., hoping to get her job back after she was fired for being a former porn-actress, lost her appeal on Friday and will not be allowed back in the classroom. Stacie Halas, 32, a science teacher at Haydock Intermediate School, was fired in April after students and teachers found pornographic videos of her on the Internet. Halas appealed the firing, but a three-judge commission unanimously decided that she should not be teaching.
The Commission on Professional Competence issued a 46-page decision in which Judge Julie Cabos-Owen stated, “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.”
Students learned of Halas’s pornographic movies and showed school administrators, but the school administrators claimed they could not find any of Halas’s movies. Teachers then started showing the administrators the movies from their smartphones.
Halas reportedly misled the school officials about her nine-month porn career before becoming a teacher at the school. Halas’s attorney, Robert Schwab, said that his client “was being honest and forthright, but was embarrassed and humiliated by her past experience in the adult industry.”
Schwab also stated that Halas was not in pornographic movies while she was employed as a teacher. Halas was only in movies from 2005 to 2006 due to financial hardship. “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,” said Schwab.
School administrators fully support the commission’s decision. District superintendent Jeff Chancer stated that Halas’s ““decision to engage in pornography was incompatible with her responsibilities as a role model for students.”
Source: KCRA3
UPDATE – February 2013:
Stacie Halas filed an appeal with the Ventura County Superior Court in an effort to try an reverse the administrative law ruling by the Commission on Professional Competence. The ruling by the Commission supported Halas’s firing by the Oxnard School District because she was a porn actress prior to becoming a teacher.
Halas’s attorney, Richard Schwab stated that the ruling against Halas was unfair and that Halas is being judged on her past profession.
“I think we have to look at what is the purpose of a hearing. Is it to look at your past and judge you?,” said Schwab.
The appeal will now be considered by a superior court judge and the decision will be independent of the previous ruling by the Commission.
Source: Ventura County Star