It took two months for the New York City Education Department to fire Melissa Petro, a Bronx elementary school teacher who had written a Huffington Post article and sundry blog posts about her sexually adventurous past, including some time spent?shedding her clothing at a club in Mexico and her stint as a prostitute, and who was, in September, removed from the classroom and reassigned. The New York Daily News reports that Petro was officially charged yesterday with conduct ?unbecoming a teacher? and let go. Petro wrote in June:
There is something wrong with me to have been capable of doing?freely and upon my own volition?something that any intelligent, decent woman would apparently never even consider doing. This something that is wrong with me, this logic clearly implies, is something that was there prior to my becoming a sex worker?something that which will remain forever.
Something that, for some, disqualifies me, still today, from working with children.
I suppose I could be fired, but for what exactly?
Petro's case, believe it or not, has occasioned a debate over whether teachers should be dismissed from their jobs?because of?their past activities. Like Petro herself, many?want to know: ?for what exactly? was?the Bronx teacher fired? It seems clear, though, that if one works with small children one should avoid advertising the less-than-professional portions of one's life story?whether such advertising takes the form of memoirs of prostitution or drunken photos on Facebook. Kids, let us not forget,?know how to Google.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow