... Let me joing the fray:
First of all, who here went to a public school?... Who here went recently to look around a classroom or has had or has a teacher as a friend and that teacher told them what life in a classroom is today? ... I bet most of you guys were raised by brothers or priests, and in your days authority existed in the classroom, discipline existed in the classroom. Well not today folks, uh huh, nope. Authority is a no given in schools today. Teachers don't have authority from the start, they must earn it. That's right. If you have kids and you think your kid has respect for his teacher, you are sooooo dead wrong. They only way your child respects his teachers is (a) you smacked your kids around to teach him good manners, or (b) the teacher earned respect with jib remarks, good come backs, humour, and a fair amount of assertation through demands of discipline and handing out punitions etc...
You don't believe me? Blame yourselves you bunch of babyboomers, you made it so, everyone's equal now, there's no more "Mr. Le Professeur," et "Vous".. it's all "tu" and "appelle moi George". You wanna talk about values at school, how about you start with values at home and stop smoking weed with your kids you jack-ass (proverbial jack-ass ofcourse, I'm not targeting anyone here, but I have known the parents of some of my friends who smoked with them, cause there's no more parent-child relationship, i'm just your friend now, don't even call me dad, you can call me by my name [Oh yes, they do exist, I know some of them]); and while we're at it, screw your babyboomer values cause you guys fucked a whole generation or two!!!
Yes, you guys took authority away and now you guys want to have a discussion about values and authority lacking in schools, what hypocrisy!!!! For crying out loud, authority is nearly inexistant in schools because of you, so don't try to pin it on the pornstar history of a teacher to make it sound like she'll have no authority in her class. I don't know how hard it will be, but I doubt it's going that much harder than any other teacher to 'earn' a position of authority in school.. To be able to earn this position ends up being a personal soci-psychological ability: if one has some leadership abilities with a good sense of timing, delivery and humour, then one can become a great teacher. If she can adapt to her crowd and assert some authority over them, then she'll do just fiiine. You guys are judging a book by its cover. Although,
one thing they should do is appoint her as a sex educator, she'll probably give everyone good tips about protection (that's a very important matter to be taught).
Now that I'm done with my rant against babyboomers, let's get back to the facts:
(a) Samantha is not in the business anymore, she was out of the business ever since she started working as a teacher,
(b) She has, from what's she's told in her numerous interviews, no intention of going back into that business;
(c) The kid came up to her after a class one day and asked her an autograph, she was dumb-struck, didn't know what to say, so she told the little-douche to leave and not to spread rumours,
(d) The little-douche went out and told all his friends and everyone that she was a porn actress.
(e) The school found out, they offered her a desk job away from the public eye: I'd like to remind you all that there's a Code du Travail, you're now allowed to downgrade someone like that without some form of reasonable cause, "HAVING" been a pornstar does not legally constitute reasonable cause.
(g) Considering all this, people make mistakes in the past, should we take away the possibility for these people to let them make a future for themselves. SO.... yes, she 'WAS' a pornstar, is she not allowed to move on with your life?
From what techman and eastender said it looks like that's what they think (ie. No future for you). And I say to you guys: if it was known to the whole world that you get to see SPs in your spare time, I think you'd both want it to be able to keep on working at your work place without being seen as a pariah who pays for sex! My gosh! How shameful! A little hypocritical if you're unwilling to walk in her shoes guys! Just imagine being where she is and you start sympathizing with her
As for school boards: are we referring to the "Commission Scolaire"? Now, let's start with a nice ad hominem attack on them, because although they have a form of authority, they lack all credibility. These are people with no background in education who make decision for our future or present kids, and sadly in most cases, their members themselves are not smarter than a 6th grader. Yes, you read right! Now, whatever authority these boards have... it should be taken away from them!! We should abolish these Commission Scolaire, because most of the elected people seating at these table are fools (elected in some case with a below 3% participation rate in the voting polls). And amongst them, It's not rare to spot an ex-coiffeuses who knows nothing of education; and since she didn't manage to make a career in hair-dressing, she decided to join that mooching-of-society bandwagon called a "Commission Scolaire"; and yes, you end up with people like that making the rules for your children?
I know, my criticism so far isn't being constructive, but I'm only saying all this for the following reasons: some of you guys are taking the moral high ground but at the same time you're all here on MERB? Who died and made you guys saints? Give me a break... none of us even have a right to be on the moral high ground while coming here. If anything, we're all supposed to be able to dissociate ourselves from our moral inequities right, hell some of you live double lives simply by being here... Just remember this, she doesn't do porn anymore, it's in her past before she got the position as a teacher, she has a right to pick a career for herself in something else no?
PS. also a Commission Scolaire isn't worth much when it comes to 'right' decisions in school management. So all of you, spare Merb the position of making us believe that school boards in Quebec are holy-sanctimonious entities who make such good decisions with regards to regulations and policies and all the good stuff pertaining to our kids.