Can admitted prostitute be a teacher?
An arts teacher in the Bronx has been put on administrative duties after revealing on stage and in The Huffington Post that she was a stripper and a sex worker.
…Melissa Petro, 30, an art teacher at Public School 70 in Mount Eden, recently revealed her dark side at the Bowery Poetry Club on the lower East Side.
“My memoir that I’m working on now is about my experiences in the sex industry starting when I was 19 years old and living as a student abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico,” Petro said at the event, videotaped by an audience member and obtained Monday night by the Daily News….
The city Education Department learned of Petro’s past from a post this month on TheHuffingtonPost.com, in which she claimed she was also a craigslist.org hooker from October 2006 to January 2007….
“A former colleague at PS 70 called Petro a “star” in the classroom.”
“ ‘If you want to be a teacher and that’s your goal, it’s stupid,’ she said of Petro’s openness about her past. “If you want to sell books then maybe not – that’s her prerogative.’ ”
Here’s a link to what she wrote for The Huffington Post.
“From October 2006 to January 2007 I accepted money in exchange for sexual services I provided to men I met online in what was then called the “erotic services” section of Craigslist.org. No more a ‘professional’ than a person renting a room on the same site is necessarily a professional real estate broker, for me and other women and men like myself, Craigslist at that time provided a simple, familiar forum through which I could do my business with complete anonymity, from the safety and convenience of my own home. At Craigslist.org, I was able to bill myself as exactly what I was at the time: a graduate student, bored and curious, sexually uninhibited, looking to make a little money while having a little fun. I wrote my own ads, screened my own prospective dates, decided on my own what I would and would not do for money, and — best of all — I kept every penny I earned, all without the interference of an agency or other ubiquitous ‘middle man.’ “…
“…It has been some years since the last time I met a stranger through Craigslist for reasons other than to buy or sell a piece of furniture. I hope to never again make the choice to trade sex for cash even as I risk my current job and social standing to speak out for an individual’s right to do so. The simple fact is that people do have sex for money — many different kinds of people for many different reasons, people as varied as those looking to buy concert tickets, sell a collectible or adopt a pet — and these people will continue to. Whether the choice to do so is being dignified and protected with its own forum or whether what was once that safe space remains appropriately labeled “censored,” that choice, without a court order one way or another, remains up to Newmark.”
I agree with her former colleague that if she’s writing a memoir it just seems like good publicity to out herself as a sex worker. I suspect she knew she would be in trouble. If she didn’t have a publisher for her memoir before, she does now.
Would you want your kids being taught by someone who admito being a former stripper and/or prostitute?
Would it make a difference if the teacher was working with younger students versus teenagers?
Do you think she wrote the piece in The Huffington Post not thinking people would find out or purely for calculated publicity?
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90 comments Add your comment
Qman
September 30th, 2010
3:12 pm
Let’s say she didnt get paid. But that she met people on craigslist, went on dates with them, and had sex with them (as some people do ) for PURE pleasure (and dinner). It is not illegal. Can she still be a teacher?
Counterpoint
September 30th, 2010
3:27 pm
“Those of you without sin, cast the first stone.”
That explains why so many on this blog condone her acts as an ex-prostitute and see no problem with her being a teacher. They see themselves in her shos and really want redemption for themselves for deep dark secrets. Quite hypocritical, but a human response I suppose. These same people always profess “I don’t care what people think”.
budman
September 30th, 2010
3:30 pm
I would rather my child be in a classroom with a hooker than Bishop Long Dong. At least she is honest.!
JohnD
September 30th, 2010
3:38 pm
After reading the comments I had an untrue story. I am a male and approached a woman asked if she would like to go out on a date. She said sure but you have to pay for the movies, dinner and a nice gift. After the date I expected nothing but she wanted to give me something for the great night. If I accept her gift of gratitude is it prostitution or just arrangement. I’ve always paid for dates never has a woman paid anything. Im out about 100k in my lifetime but if I just made arrangements maybe I could have saved some money. I think the difference is the money. I wonder if it was formal and a couple of meetings then gifts then sex would that still be illegal because it happens. I here all sorts of woman say all the time he bought me this and that and I see him from time to time. Is that a form of prostitution. Well anyway I think us men are all being exploited into illegal prostitution when we pay for dates. Split 50/50 for now on. Stay out of jail.
BillyBob from Brooklyn
September 30th, 2010
3:39 pm
Okay, maybe teaching art is a stretch and she should be teaching sex education instead. I don’t think her brief past vocation would have any negative impact on her present career. Okay, I agree that asking her students to draw an extra big Jimbob was a little out of line but….
Mark
September 30th, 2010
3:42 pm
I don’t see what one has to do with the other.
Steve
September 30th, 2010
3:53 pm
Maybe they should pay teachers more so that they don’t have to resort to other jobs.
Get it right
September 30th, 2010
3:57 pm
If every member (male and female) of Congress who had had premarital sex, illegal sex, commited adultry, had sex with prostitutes were forced out of office – would there be a quorum in either house?
David
September 30th, 2010
4:04 pm
Sorry but I’ll draw the right and wrong line here. No since she exposed her own past, and it is a shady past to say the least. It’s a part of society that is out there but one that should not be out and open to children. I know we are all adults, but the kids are not and we should not pretend that they are anything but children. The topic doesn’t need to be brought up to the really young kids, and it would be a distraction for older kids who “know more”.
Don’t get me wrong teachers are people and are entitled to have a life outside of the class room, however when you openly talk about performing illegal acts, that is again crossing the line.
wondering
September 30th, 2010
4:23 pm
Can we do that? no really can we?
Tom
September 30th, 2010
4:23 pm
To those who would balk over having this woman teach your child becuase of her supposed “morality” issues, do you not care about the morals of the teachers that simply never actually worked in the sex trade?
I’ve known quite a few teachers in my years, and believe me….some of them were (and probably still are) absolute FREAKS…..stuff that would make most of you blush…..probably kill a few of ya’.
Tom
September 30th, 2010
4:24 pm
Another point…….what if she had worked as a LEGAL prostitute in Nevada? Would that makee a difference?
wondering
September 30th, 2010
4:25 pm
I meant fire every member of congress that has had extramarital sex. We could start over.
Student
September 30th, 2010
4:27 pm
If illiterates can teach in Georgia why can’t prostitutes?
Male Student
September 30th, 2010
4:29 pm
Aren’t all WOMEN basically Prostitutes? They use what they have to get what they want.
DB
September 30th, 2010
4:35 pm
It’s one of those old-fashioned things that have clung to the teaching profession for eons — people want the woman (man?) teaching their child to be someone whose moral compass is going to let them err on the side of setting a good example instead of worrying whether the teacher is going the lead their impressionable child down a road of vice and ruin. :-) I think it stems from the fact that in the far past, the only people learned enough to be teachers were priests and other members of the clergy. There developed a sense that teachers had to be above reproach — heavens, a teacher wasn’t even allowed to be seen in a man’s company in Victorian times without her reputation being shredded and losing her job. It wasn’t until after the Civil Wat the women outnumbers the men as teachers — it was felt that a woman was ok to teach younger kids, but older kids needed the discipline that a man would bring to the classroom. (Coincidentaly, that was about the time that teaching starting becoming a lower-paid job — as soon as it became primarily women!) Even in the 1930s, teachers were forced to resign if they married, and teachers were fired in some districts if they were caught attending a dance! From 1872: “Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.”
I guess most people still think there’s something somewhat slimey about renting your body by the hour, and while they may be personally understanding — that doesn’t mean that they want that person anywhere near their kids. Prostitution may be the “world’s oldest profession”, but it has never been something that a conscientious parent wanted their child to aspire to :-) I guess we want teachers that our children can look up to and emulate. This young woman doesn’t meet that criteria, and the fact that she’s still rationalizing it as “well, everyone does it in some form” tells me that she feels little remorse or sense of shame. That’s not the kind of teacher I would want for my child.
I remember that we had a family picnic for the members of my son’s soccer team (12 years old). Large team, big pool party, and it was a family party, for the parents as well as for the kids, and some father’s brought beer to the bbq. The coaches, young men in their early-mid 20’s from the U.K. were also there. One of the dads handed the coach a beer, and the coach turned it down politely (even though he was certainly an avid beer drinker!), with the smiling explanation — “I don’t drink in front of my players. I’m too close to their age, and it might send the wrong message.” I thought it was a brilliant and thoughtful response.
DB
September 30th, 2010
4:37 pm
T, my comment is lost in cyber-space . . .
DB
September 30th, 2010
4:39 pm
@Male Student: You’re obviously hanging around with the wrong kind of girl, then. Anything paid for by a sexual act usually isn’t worth that much in the first place.
Dirk Diggler
September 30th, 2010
4:46 pm
Hold Up DB!!
My first paid encounter was worth every bit of the $5 I paid.. If you dont believe me, come hang out on Fulton Industrial. It’s a free for all. Fulton County cant seem to get a grip on the situation but my girl Champagne can!!
Male Student
September 30th, 2010
5:06 pm
DB.
Never had a wife that wanted a new ring or something extravagant? Think they do the unmentionables that they hate the worst just because they were feeling generous? Trust me, they were doing it to get what they wanted. Think the date that you just bought dinner and a night out was just being generous. Get real!
Just watching
September 30th, 2010
5:06 pm
I’d rather have a prostitute than a “flaming” homosexual teaching my kids……..You would be surprised at the number of women who have put them selves through school by “doing it” on the the side……..
shaggy
September 30th, 2010
5:15 pm
I still say that this is a great way to get the fathers involved with their child’s learning.
“Don’t worry honey. You work around the house so hard, your TV shows, and those curler things in your hair, not to mention you would need to actually try putting on makeup. I’ll go meat the teacher for a long hard discussion about little Johnny. It will be my pleasure taking the load off.”
catlady
September 30th, 2010
6:55 pm
Should a kid have to be in a class with the kids of prostitutes, drug users, drug sellers, meth addicts, those who cheat on their spouse, those who are racist? Or should we say they are not to associate with kids whose parents are more “clean living?”
Should a teacher have to teach eight year olds who come to school stinking of the pot their parents smoked on the way to drop them off?
While I question her motives, everyone has baggage of some sort they bring to work, even if it is something like cheating on a spelling test at the age of 7 or taking a piece of candy or cussing their mother under their breath when they are 12. If we are looking for the perfect, we won’t have any schools.
DB
September 30th, 2010
7:03 pm
@Male Student: Umm — I’m a mid-50’s woman, so . . . yeah . . . hmm . . . no, I’ve never had a wife and I’ve never bought a date dinner (except in college, when I’d occasionally go Dutch if my date was running low.) If I want a new ring or something extravagant, kiddo, I damn well buy it myself, I don’t ask my husband’s “permission” or coerce him. And I can confidently state that I have NEVER paid for a dinner with sex — NO dinner has ever been THAT good. Any guy that expected that of me when I was single didn’t get a second date.
Again — I really question the kind of girls you’re hanging out with . . . apparently we’ve raised a generation of young women who have very little respect for themselves.
mom of 3
September 30th, 2010
7:08 pm
@catlady – copletely agree. Do you not consider teenage girls in middle and high school that go to sex parties in the afternoon when mom and dad aren’t home prostitutes in a way? They are the same girls doing it with different boys, no money changes hand but popularity with the opposite sex is achieved. Oh yeah, forgot none of our kids would do that.
Male Student
September 30th, 2010
7:13 pm
DB,
Actually it was your daughter! LOL
DB
September 30th, 2010
8:31 pm
@Male Student: Not with you, buddy.
EW
October 1st, 2010
3:17 am
As an non-tenured teacher who lost and has been fighting for my job after I was harassed for reporting a tenured teacher for corporal punishment, I am totally offended by this story and the fact that she places no value on her job and her position as a role model for her students. Her inability to censor herself, emotional immaturity, and cavalier attitude toward the privilege of making 61000.00 a year teaching art to children make her an unfit teacher.
Warrior Woman
October 1st, 2010
9:14 am
She has shown a complete lack of judgement and discretion by bragging talking opening about her past crimes with no indication of remorse. I wouldn’t want her teaching my children.
NorthGATeach
October 1st, 2010
9:16 am
She won’t be a teacher long. I’m sure she’ll go through legal woes, write a book, make a lot more money than teaching/’tuting combined and retire on a tropical island somewhere in the Bahamas. Let her go… We don’t need people like her in education anyway. What kind of teacher publically admits such trash?!
BTW… It should be the parents who set a moral background for our children. Yes, teachers should continue it in the classroom, but parents need to set the foundation.
As teachers, we may not like the fact that our lives are an open book (especially in small towns), but until we stand united and fight for our rights to “have a life”, we must face the public with our most moral persona. :) This former ‘tute needs to face the consequences of letting the “cat out of the bag”.
mom of 3
October 1st, 2010
1:28 pm
@NorthGATeach – bitter much????
carolyn
October 1st, 2010
5:22 pm
A prostitute is not a pedophile. Get over yourselves.
Zia
October 1st, 2010
7:33 pm
Interesting question. My personal belief is that what we refer to as “prostitution” is an ancient, honorable, and honest occupation, though it has, as Camille Paglia observed “been given a bad name by amateurs.” That said there is the issue that Ms. Petra has admitted to behaviors that extend beyond the boundaries of the law. Since she only talked about it however, and was not convicted of any crime, I think the school system should hire her if she is a qualified teacher. Of course, there are and always have been many teachers who have engaged in some form of sex work at some time in their lives, who have kept their activities secret. It seems to be the time in our culture when we do not necessarily to always be so secretive about our humanness and our sexuality.
mark hallen
October 2nd, 2010
3:12 am
I don’t think she should be fired because she’s a former prostitute. I think she should be fired because she’s a current idiot.
I mean, don’t you have to be a few colors short of the full set of Crayolas to think that writing about your past life as a hooker and stripper–without bothering to use a pseudonym–might cause a slight problem for your elementary school teaching career?
I don’t want stupid people teaching our kids. (more at laughs4dads.com)
BIG DEE DEE DAWG
October 2nd, 2010
11:07 am
day one, she’s looking at my boner, day 2 boner looking at her butter-bean, way down deep !!
.
October 2nd, 2010
11:07 am
Enter your comments here
Ed & Sandra
October 3rd, 2010
3:50 pm
Of course, a prostitute can be a teacher. We have CEO’s and other admitted crooks running corporations and even schools, so why not an ex prostitute? As long as she does not violate school policy by having sex with the students like so many non-prostitutes have done over the past couple of years. Or, start tie a student to a desk so they will listen. Then there are the parents that are switching partners, cheating and more. Where do we draw the line? At least with an admitted professional it is unlikely that the above commonly violated moral values will be committed. Been there, done that. Right?
NorthGATeach
October 4th, 2010
10:15 am
@ mom of 3 – it depends. are you one of those parents who thinks it is my job to teach your three kids moral values? or are you actually fulfilling your parental duties? i am only bitter towards parents who expect teachers to do the parents’ jobs…
Come on Son
October 5th, 2010
3:41 pm
Can a single teacher who accepts a paid vacation, rent or car payment assistance, or help with bills from the person they are dating be considered a prostitute?
iRun
October 5th, 2010
3:59 pm
All sex is transactional…don’t you kids know that? And, Male Student, it’s just as transactional for men as it is for women.
Now that it’s on the table…it’s time to relax.
Sometimes I agree to have sex with my husband because when I do, he gives me sex. Sometimes it’s because I want to snuggle and be all lovely. Sometimes it’s so he’ll be happy. Sometimes it’s so he’ll leave me alone after.
See? I got something out of it, every time!
All sex is transactional. All of it.