What purpose does publicizing her past accomplish? Does this mean that someone with such a past have no chance of doing more with a life? If she lied on her application then so what? Everyone lies on their resumes to an extent.

#1, are you serious?

If it was my decision, I guess it would depend on how she performed in her "personal interview".

I would not want someone like this to teach my child.

I want my child to learn that he or she ALWAYS has options that do not include putting themselves in a place where they clearly have no self-respect.

I don´t want my girls to learn that putting themselves in a place where it´s okay for men to disrespect them, or put in the minds of my sons that women with low self-esteem are okay to take advantage of, is a healthy way to live life.

I can just hear the mind of a young irl thinking, "Well, Ms. R was in porn before she became a teacher, so if I do that, then I will build a life for myself too."

Ugh.

This came up because the kids - her students - had seen her past "work".

I´d say the school had no choice.

I taught my kids and my grandchildren that everything we do has consequences, so we must make good choices.

Her way of making money during a bad patch was not a good choice. Not good judgment.

Once she found out that her students viewed the films, wouldn´t she be embarressed enough to just quit?

Preferable to what we already have indoctrinating our young. At least it’s a forgivable sin.

Anita Bryant fought and lost the battle to bar homosexual teachers. How much worse is a former porn star?

This Oxnard teacher may or may not win her job back, but eventually it will be illegal to discriminate against anyone no matter what their perversion. When everything is allowed the only crime will be not allowing everything.

One would think that the recent publicity about not discriminating against people with police/criminal records when hiring ... what she was doing wasn´t illegal!

Maybe if she had been a convicted child molester, this would ever have come up. /s

Typical public school teacher. I thought they all had such pasts.

Notice that it´s the affirmative action cases, found in the math/sci departments who have all the issues. The last female math teacher whose name was in the news was the one who got fired in Florida for ordering her students to vote for Obama. Now we have this one, a science teacher. Talk about scraping bottom.

I think the district has a pretty strong case because of her lying on her application about ´´things that occurred some years ago.´´ (Her porno career was in 2005). I doubt they would have hired her had they known. What´s more, letting her lie means EVERYONE can lie about their pasts from now on, consequence free. Still, one wonders about the quality of background investigations these people do, apparently, they don´t do any.

The other interesting thing is that porno actors are all warned, before they participate, that there is no keeping such a past secret and they´ve got to expect being exposed. Guess she didn´t listen to the instructions - not a good quality in a teacher.

It´s time that Porn-Americans are given the same rights as all others!

I cannot believe that the entire public school system, which has turned out some pretty smart people over the years, gets slammed because one woman lied on her employment application.

Just too much of a leap for me.

As for there being parity between acting in a porn film and homosexuality, that one loses me as well.

She made a bad decision. It went public because the kids found out. Have seen her film(s). The kids and their parents should not have to live with her bad decision.

PS. FTA:

School officials discovered Halas’ past when students began talking about and viewing the pornographic material of their teacher.

The question no one seems to have considered is how did these intermediate school kids happen to find the exact porn films that she "starred" in?

Interesting question.

How did the kids find out? Did she make porn using her real name.

If she wants to teach, she should change her name and go somewhere no one knows her. Like Japan.

"Hey, look, son - isn´t that your science teacher?"

How many people have something in their past that is embarrassing or even illegal? Ever been speeding or reckless driving? How about smoking a little weed in college? Ever got behind the wheel when you might have had a bit too much to drink? Ever cheated a bit on a test? Ever said something bad about another person that caused that person some real problems?

She did something completely legal for a brief period of time before she worked for this school. She is no longer doing it and seems to be a good teacher. How many of us could hold our complete past up to examination and have nothing of which to be concerned? If someone asked, have you ever "fill-in-the-blank" how many of us would willingly own up to it?

The students finding out about her films certainly creates a difficultly. It affects her credibility as an instructor. But firing her seems unfair.

Cheaters, thieves, LGBTs, Liberals/Socialists/Communists/Anarchists, Illiterates, and Illegal Aliens are OKay to teach.
Ex Porn stars need not apply.

Deleted by the Taste Police. Unnecessarily graphic.

IMO her past shouldn´t be held against her, since what she did wasn´t illegal and only for a brief period, but it is difficult to get middle school boys, who had viewed her films, to concentrate on the subject matter. What you do in your youth can affect your entire life.

How many people on this thread ´googled´ her....
I did .

Talking about this does as much good as talking about the fellow who smoked dope (illegal) and did blow when it was available (also illegal). Just not fair to hold people responsible for actions in their past.

At least she now has a great future ahead in politics--assuming she runs as a democrat.

It is depressing how the concept of redemption has been nearly cleaned out of our culture when it used to be the primary exit for villains in the early motion pictures. Horatio Alger´s stories nearly always had at least one bad person undergoing a redemption before the tale´s end -- sometimes the hero himself began as a thief or bully.

I say let the teacher have a chance to redeem her life, moving away from the lurid and into a position of socially responsible educator. At least she doesn´t pretend that stuff never happened (a la Bill & Hillary Clinton)

Deleted by the Taste Police. Staff is not amused.

About the business of lying on a job application (which includes lying by omission):

http://employment.findlaw.com/hiring-process/lying-on-a-resume-or-job-application.html

Subject exhausted.