Teacher Fights for Job Over Topless Photos

[yeahright]

Teacher Fights for Job Over Topless Photos
By APRIL CASTRO

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Until they found the topless photos, Austin High School officials considered Tamara Hoover an excellent art teacher with a knack for helping students find their creativity. Now, she's fighting for her job.

The photos, which were posted on Flickr.com by her partner, depict Hoover in the shower, lifting weights, getting dressed, in bed and doing other routine activities.

Hoover said Friday the photos are art and makes no apologies.

``I'm an artist and I'm going to participate in the arts,'' Hoover said. ``If that's not something they want me to do then I want to be told that. I don't feel as if I was doing anything that was beyond expectations.''

The school district said the photos were inappropriate and violate the ``higher moral standard'' expected of public school teachers. As she was escorted out of class last month she was told she's become an ineffective teacher.

The district wants to revoke her teaching certification, which would keep her out of Texas classrooms permanently. Hoover will appeal the ruling and is prepared to take the case to court, she said.

Hoover's abrupt dismissal highlights a new concern for employees: Your boss has Internet access, too.

``People don't realize when they put their entire diary out there, they're giving very private information to the public,'' said Kate Brooks, director of career services for liberal arts students at the University of Texas at Austin.

The photos came to light last month as a result of a feud over ceramics equipment with another art teacher, according to sworn affidavits. Students who had seen the pictures showed the teacher, who then notified school officials.

Austen Clements, one of Hoover's students, noted that many artists have nude pictures, including Georgia O'Keeffe.

``If Georgia O'Keeffe wanted to teach at Austin High, I don't think they'd say, 'No, you have nude pictures online,''' Clements said.

The school was attended by President Bush's daughters, Barbara and Jenna.

 

[CROWLER]

This thread sucks without photos


CROWLER

 

[yeahright]

This thread sucks without photos


CROWLER

Admin removed the adult section due to bandwidth bottlenecks. :icon_lol:

However, here is her myspace page (pics but no nude pics either):



www.myspace.com/mshoover

 

[Viperspit]

Admin removed the adult section due to bandwidth bottlenecks. :icon_lol:

However, here is her myspace page (pics but no nude pics either):



www.myspace.com/mshoover

wow, that sure is a pretty pu$$y she has in that pic

 

[Jayhawkk]

Sort of split on this one. On one hand if she's a good teacher then that should count but on the other, kids have access to the internet too and can you be effective if you are a distraction?

Certain clothes and other items are kept out of the classroom because of their distraction to learning. This could be viewed as the same. People need to wake up and realize everyone looks at the internet now.

 

[Viperspit]

People need to wake up and realize everyone looks at the internet now.

THE INTERNET IS FOR PORN

 

[Jayhawkk]

Grab your **** and double click!

 

[Viperspit]

Grab your **** and double click!

I got java issues or macromedia flash issues, I can never see the YouTube crap I'll have to fix that one of these days.

 

[Jayhawkk]

Try this one

 

[Viperspit]

Try this one

haha, yea I've seen that before.

 

[CROWLER]

Admin removed the adult section due to bandwidth bottlenecks. :icon_lol:

However, here is her myspace page (pics but no nude pics either):



www.myspace.com/mshoover

You said HOOVER mphfflol

 

[Beowulf]

I thought I was the only teacher with topless pics on the net <

Must maintain the anonymity. Honestly, as a fellow teacher, I am all for participating in the arts, but kids will not take you seriously if they can see you naked on the internet.

 

[Iron Warrior]

Hey Beowful would your students recognize you on AM if they see your tat ?

As a teacher myself, I would say she screwed up by having those pics on the net BUT if she is doing a good job of teaching then she should keep her job because that's what she gets paid to do. I'm sorry but often times people think teachers have to live like saints and that's not going to happen. BTW, it's not like there's a huge waiting list for QUALIFIED teachers so why would they make their jobs harder ?

 

[Iron Warrior]

As a teacher myself I'd say she definitely screwed up BUT if she is meeting or exceeding her job expectations then I would not fire her if I were a school administrator. Sometimes people expect teachers to act like saints 24/7 but that's impossible, at least for me it is LOL

BTW, Beowful, would your students recognize you by your tat or screen name ? If so then we may hear about you next, especially if you by some odd chance give a student of yours advice on PH's

 

[Beowulf]

I don't advise the on PH's; I tell them if they're going to risk it go straight for Test/Tren I usually don't wear tank tops to school, so none of the kids have seen the delt ink. Beowulf is not the name on my teacher's license.

I'm not sure if I think she should be fired, but that is a major lapse of judgment. Teenagers are so impressionable, and if they look up to someone, they are even moreso. If her students really admire her and respect her decisions, they may be tempted to due "artistic nudes" too. Once they hit 18 that is fine (I guess), but anything sooner and it opens the door to exploitation. That may sound like hyperbole, but anyone who has studied human development knows that teens are not dealing with a full deck. Development is such an individual process, that despite the fact that many kids are quite competent and mature, you absolutely cannot generalize that observation to the masses.

 

[CDB]

Grab your **** and double click!

That was ****ing hilarious. Never saw that before.

I have to say though I'm kind of enjoying all this bad female teacher crap lately. After dealing with men are pigs comments all your life from women it's nice to see their evil and tasteless side splashed all over the country for everyone to see. Bunch of female teachers screwing their students, this chick now. It's actually a fine day when the other half of the species gets publicly called out on their ****.

 

[Jayhawkk]

Love the child sex charges that get overlooked when it's a woman teacher though.

 

[Mulletsoldier]

If she was my teacher when I was 15 I can tell you right it would be some Mary-Kay Latourneau(sp) shizzle all over again.

 

[yeahright]

Love the child sex charges that get overlooked when it's a woman teacher though.

EXACTLY. You have an authority figure using the inherant coercive power of her position over a vulnerable person. Mary Kay Letourneau started grooming her victim when he was 11 years old. This is classic pedophile behavior.

 

[Mulletsoldier]

EXACTLY. You have an authority figure using the inherant coercive power of her position over a vulnerable person. Mary Kay Letourneau started grooming her victim when he was 11 years old. This is classic pedophile behavior.

I have not seen the photos, but given the tasteful nature of those seen on her myspace account, I would venture a guess the topless photographs were done in a highly tasteful manner as well. If this teacher were engaging in pornography, or the photos were lude, graphic, or obscene in nature I would be all for her immediate termination, however if they were none of those things I am 100% against it. Her termination sets a precedent that if you are in any type of public position you required to abstain from participating in any artistic behaviour that may not fall in line with the relative morality of that position. I would not incenuate that she had intentions of pedophilia in the least. This also raises may ever growing concern over the elimination of privacy in the face of unbridled accessibility. Yet, that is an entirely different thread.

 

[yeahright]

I have not seen the photos, but given the tasteful nature of those seen on her myspace account, I would venture a guess the topless photographs were done in a highly tasteful manner as well. If this teacher were engaging in pornography, or the photos were lude, graphic, or obscene in nature I would be all for her immediate termination, however if they were none of those things I am 100% against it. Her termination sets a precedent that if you are in any type of public position you required to abstain from participating in any artistic behaviour that may not fall in line with the relative morality of that position. I would not incenuate that she had intentions of pedophilia in the least. This also raises may ever growing concern over the elimination of privacy in the face of unbridled accessibility. Yet, that is an entirely different thread.

Sorry if I was sloppy in my references. I WAS NOT referring to these photos as pedophile grooming behavior. I was gesturing back at the comment Jayhawkk made about teachers having sex with their students.

 

[CDB]

Love the child sex charges that get overlooked when it's a woman teacher though.

Ah but it's finally changing! Sentences may still be light, in some cases I think they should be depending on how old the kid is. But it's finally happening! It was women who made sex crimes a focus of society, made them realize it was about power and not sex, and now it's finally being shown that it's true the other way around too, that women can be put in a position of power of men, or boys, and **** up and treat people like ****, sometimes criminally. Kind of takes some air out of the radical feminist man hater crowd's protestations that men are the source of all evil in the world. And I love that.

 

[CDB]

I have not seen the photos, but given the tasteful nature of those seen on her myspace account, I would venture a guess the topless photographs were done in a highly tasteful manner as well. If this teacher were engaging in pornography, or the photos were lude, graphic, or obscene in nature I would be all for her immediate termination, however if they were none of those things I am 100% against it. Her termination sets a precedent that if you are in any type of public position you required to abstain from participating in any artistic behaviour that may not fall in line with the relative morality of that position. I would not incenuate that she had intentions of pedophilia in the least. This also raises may ever growing concern over the elimination of privacy in the face of unbridled accessibility. Yet, that is an entirely different thread.

I get what you're saying, this could certainly have been not the best thread for my opinion. Just a general statement I made, I don't think it's a certainty this woman should lose her job. It is an odd situation. She should have a private life that is hers, but also she should recognize that something in her private life could affect her professional life. But then again a woman's tits used to be a private matter, now they're all over the net, high speed porn for everyone. Maybe people are confusing privacy with decency.

I'm even partial to the idea that it's a good thing they saw her tits. Our society is way to strung out over who ****s who and how, we'll show bloody murders on prime time TV but God forbid a breast or genitals of any kind are shown, male or female. Ever notice on cable they'll barely ever show a guy's schlong but full on nudity of women is the norm? Double and weird standards, and stupid in my opinion. They don't want to acknowledge it when little Joey likes Miss Bracket, or Jenny like Mr. Johnson. They especially don't like it when little Joey likes Mr. Bracket. Yes boys, your teacher is good looking and has nice tits. Now shut up and keep on with your algebra.

Maybe the fifties were a simpler, better time.

 

[eGhost]

Is it just me or does she look like a crackhead?

eGhost.

 

[CDB]

Is it just me or does she look like a crackhead?

eGhost.

A little bit, yeah. Kind of unhealthily skinny, more the result of deliberate starvation rather than a good diet and workout.

 

[Herris]

She looks pretty hot to me. Come teach me! /GRR