Porn-Star Schoolteacher Wants Her Job Back
I saw this mentioned on a blog somewhere, and ended up getting sucked into this vortex of preconception and misdirection. Some of the story is from earlier in the year, but a new development was reported on the conservative Christian web site AgapePress this week. First, I must mention, I've had some first-hand experience with this "writer," Jim Brown. He is basically a stenographer for the right who passes on, as fact, whatever any extremist group hands him, whether there is any basis to it or not.
Here's his sad story of a lady who has repented her evil ways.
Personally, I am ambivalent about the idea of having porn actresses teaching high school. I don't have a preconception about how this one should come out. On one hand, teachers are expected to maintain a kind of standard of personal behavior. Like, I remember my father, who was a teacher, telling us once about another teacher at his school who had gone to a party and had a few drinks, got into a fender-bender on the way home, and was fired the next day. Is that right, I don't know, it's just how it is.
On the other hand, c'mon, this was -- what's it say? -- eleven years ago. Well, eleven years ago my life was just as boring as it is now, but still, there were some things I did in my twenties that maybe I wouldn't want the whole world to know about ... no, I was never in a porn movie.
Anyway, first of all, it seems weird to see the religious right defending a porn actress. Their line is, it was just a youthful mistake, she needed the money, she was abused by an alcoholic father, it wasn't her fault, and now she's found Jesus and it's all behind her. Contrast that with the treatment they're giving the PBS kids' show host who once appeared in a spoof of abstinence-only education called "Technical Virgins." (Those with a sense of humor may enjoy seeing the ad HERE -- it's pretty funny.) Or, hey, how forgiving are they, even now, of Bill Clinton's indiscretion? I'll bet they forgive Mel Gibson before they forgive Pee Wee Herman.
OK, I'm cool with the found-Jesus-different-now story. Put her back in the classroom, fine.
But when you lift the corner of the curtain -- aw, c'mon, this always happens.
First, from Wikipedia we learn that her stage name was Rikki Anderson, and they give her "partial filmography" as:
Hmmm, that's not "one movie, eleven years ago." That partial list has four movies, as recently as seven years ago. Surfing around the web, you see plenty of others, too.
Wikipedia also mentions another film she appeared in, whose name I will not pass on here, and tells us that she was "a psychological operations specialist in the 4th PSYOP Group in the United States Army," working in a military prison. Wow, that's a movie in itself (I'm not going to go there).
Some Googling shows a lot of stories repeating the same non-facts about her one mistake eleven years ago. Like, here's a local radio station's news site, which I found via the rightwing portal Free Republic:
So it goes. There's a pretty informative AP story HERE. An interview with Rita Cosby HERE, for what it's worth.
There is a kind of interesting promotional interview with "Rikki Anderson" HERE. Unfortunately, it's just unformatted text and very hard to read online. A couple of snippets, to give you the idea:
Most of this interview would be inappropriate for this blog. Let's just say she seems ... enthusiastic about her work in the porn business.
Do you remember when Laura Schlesinger's nude photos appeared on the Internet a few year back? Some boyfriend had taken them when she was young, OK, everybody understood that and felt a little sorry that it all had to come out in public.
That's one thing.
But here, it is clear we have a woman who was a professional porn actress. I see one reviewer says she was in eleven movies, but it looks like maybe more than that. And now she wants to teach science. Well, I still don't really have anything against that, myself.
For me, there are two questions here. First, why is the religious right so eager to take up her cause? Yeah, I see the repentance angle to it, I suppose there's a theme of sin and redemption that makes a good story with a moral. This one seems a little iffy, though. I'd say the possibility of this backfiring on them is pretty high -- just imagine what happens the first time some student tells a reporter a juicy story.
The second question is, why is the AgapePress audience so satisfied with lies? You can find dozens of web sites that are perfectly willing to pass on the "fact" that this nice schoolteacher, down on her luck, behaved indiscreetly for ten minutes -- yes, they actually say that, ten minutes, eleven years ago. And of course that means thousands of readers are perfectly happy to believe it.
OK, I'm being a little disingenuous, I understand this a little bit. It takes effort to check facts, that's part of it. Well, not much effort, Google does all the work for you in this case.
But more than that, here's what happens. People see the world in terms of good and evil, and they judge themselves on the good side. That's just human nature, Christians do it, Jews do it, Muslims do it, atheists do it ... Then they look for beliefs that support that judgment. Everybody thinks that what they believe is true, of course, but that's not necessarily the reason they believe it. Facts will be accepted if they fit the story, the theory, the pattern that confirms the beliefs they already hold.
In this case, you have a young woman with ... a wild side. She was a small-time porn star and "dancer," a few years ago. Well, sorry, but the demands for novelty and youth work against you, very few people have careers in that industry that last any length of time. So now she wants to be a schoolteacher. Maybe she's totally given up her wild ways, I don't know, it hardly matters. All that matters is that her story can be twisted into something that the religious nuts can use to "prove" that the world is against them, and that they are really forgiving, nonjudgmental souls. See, we even accept this poor girl who made a mistake one day long ago.
I don't care if she teaches or not, the school board decides that (and in this case, they decided to let her go). But, I admit, I am fascinated by the process of story construction and the acceptance of fiction as fact.
Here's his sad story of a lady who has repented her evil ways.
AgapePress) - A high school science teacher who was fired by a Kentucky school board for appearing in a pornographic film over a decade ago is fighting to get her job back.
Tericka Dye was fired last spring by the McCracken County School Board after school officials learned she appeared in a porn film in 1995. She was 23 at the time. Dye, who was a science teacher and volleyball coach at Reidland High School in Paducah, says taking part in the movie -- at a time when she was struggling financially -- was a moral lapse of only a few hours, and that she has since become a Christian and deserves a second chance. Lawsuit Seeks Reinstatement of KY Teacher Dismissed for Appearing in Adult Film
Personally, I am ambivalent about the idea of having porn actresses teaching high school. I don't have a preconception about how this one should come out. On one hand, teachers are expected to maintain a kind of standard of personal behavior. Like, I remember my father, who was a teacher, telling us once about another teacher at his school who had gone to a party and had a few drinks, got into a fender-bender on the way home, and was fired the next day. Is that right, I don't know, it's just how it is.
On the other hand, c'mon, this was -- what's it say? -- eleven years ago. Well, eleven years ago my life was just as boring as it is now, but still, there were some things I did in my twenties that maybe I wouldn't want the whole world to know about ... no, I was never in a porn movie.
Anyway, first of all, it seems weird to see the religious right defending a porn actress. Their line is, it was just a youthful mistake, she needed the money, she was abused by an alcoholic father, it wasn't her fault, and now she's found Jesus and it's all behind her. Contrast that with the treatment they're giving the PBS kids' show host who once appeared in a spoof of abstinence-only education called "Technical Virgins." (Those with a sense of humor may enjoy seeing the ad HERE -- it's pretty funny.) Or, hey, how forgiving are they, even now, of Bill Clinton's indiscretion? I'll bet they forgive Mel Gibson before they forgive Pee Wee Herman.
OK, I'm cool with the found-Jesus-different-now story. Put her back in the classroom, fine.
But when you lift the corner of the curtain -- aw, c'mon, this always happens.
First, from Wikipedia we learn that her stage name was Rikki Anderson, and they give her "partial filmography" as:
- Valentino's Sexual Reality 4: Inside L.A. (1999)
- Major Slut (1999)
- Rug Munchers (1997)
- Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun (1997)
Hmmm, that's not "one movie, eleven years ago." That partial list has four movies, as recently as seven years ago. Surfing around the web, you see plenty of others, too.
Wikipedia also mentions another film she appeared in, whose name I will not pass on here, and tells us that she was "a psychological operations specialist in the 4th PSYOP Group in the United States Army," working in a military prison. Wow, that's a movie in itself (I'm not going to go there).
Some Googling shows a lot of stories repeating the same non-facts about her one mistake eleven years ago. Like, here's a local radio station's news site, which I found via the rightwing portal Free Republic:
Reidland, KY - When do we forgive people for mistakes they've made in the past? One Heartland community is battling the issue.
"I'm girl from the wrong side of the tracks who's made a lot of bad decisions in life," suspended teacher Tericka Dye.
Through the tears, a confession of what Tericka Dye calls the worst choice she's ever made. "I don't think I should pay eleven years later by losing the one career I found that I love and that I'm good at." Teacher Confesses to Role in Adult Film
So it goes. There's a pretty informative AP story HERE. An interview with Rita Cosby HERE, for what it's worth.
There is a kind of interesting promotional interview with "Rikki Anderson" HERE. Unfortunately, it's just unformatted text and very hard to read online. A couple of snippets, to give you the idea:
... But Anderson decided that she missed the military and re-enlisted. "You had access to so many things," she says. "Then I decided I wanted to try porn again. I guess it's a double-addiction: porn/military."
...
"My nickname is Cape Canaveral, so what does that tell you?"
...
There was this thing that I learned in the military, the fact that I could look feminine had its advantages with the women and the men. It was like, 'My God, look at this lipstick....[lesbian]. So, if I wanted to swing that way, hey...if I wanted to swing the other way it was, "Oh look at this chick that you can't totally believe she's in the army when she's out of uniform."
Most of this interview would be inappropriate for this blog. Let's just say she seems ... enthusiastic about her work in the porn business.
Do you remember when Laura Schlesinger's nude photos appeared on the Internet a few year back? Some boyfriend had taken them when she was young, OK, everybody understood that and felt a little sorry that it all had to come out in public.
That's one thing.
But here, it is clear we have a woman who was a professional porn actress. I see one reviewer says she was in eleven movies, but it looks like maybe more than that. And now she wants to teach science. Well, I still don't really have anything against that, myself.
For me, there are two questions here. First, why is the religious right so eager to take up her cause? Yeah, I see the repentance angle to it, I suppose there's a theme of sin and redemption that makes a good story with a moral. This one seems a little iffy, though. I'd say the possibility of this backfiring on them is pretty high -- just imagine what happens the first time some student tells a reporter a juicy story.
The second question is, why is the AgapePress audience so satisfied with lies? You can find dozens of web sites that are perfectly willing to pass on the "fact" that this nice schoolteacher, down on her luck, behaved indiscreetly for ten minutes -- yes, they actually say that, ten minutes, eleven years ago. And of course that means thousands of readers are perfectly happy to believe it.
OK, I'm being a little disingenuous, I understand this a little bit. It takes effort to check facts, that's part of it. Well, not much effort, Google does all the work for you in this case.
But more than that, here's what happens. People see the world in terms of good and evil, and they judge themselves on the good side. That's just human nature, Christians do it, Jews do it, Muslims do it, atheists do it ... Then they look for beliefs that support that judgment. Everybody thinks that what they believe is true, of course, but that's not necessarily the reason they believe it. Facts will be accepted if they fit the story, the theory, the pattern that confirms the beliefs they already hold.
In this case, you have a young woman with ... a wild side. She was a small-time porn star and "dancer," a few years ago. Well, sorry, but the demands for novelty and youth work against you, very few people have careers in that industry that last any length of time. So now she wants to be a schoolteacher. Maybe she's totally given up her wild ways, I don't know, it hardly matters. All that matters is that her story can be twisted into something that the religious nuts can use to "prove" that the world is against them, and that they are really forgiving, nonjudgmental souls. See, we even accept this poor girl who made a mistake one day long ago.
I don't care if she teaches or not, the school board decides that (and in this case, they decided to let her go). But, I admit, I am fascinated by the process of story construction and the acceptance of fiction as fact.
posted by JimK at 1:15 PM
16 Comments:
I remember when I was in high school we had a swim coach that was sleeping with a couple of girls on the team. We were ambivalent about it. He got away with it. A couple of years ago I read in the paper that a teacher who taught at the elementary school I transferred to, but was not in his class (lucky Me) was convicted of molesting a lot of his boy students. Most of them never said anything about it so he mostly got away with it. I would have to say although most people say they are against having sex with children when it comes right down to it they just don’t want to deal with it.
Well, Jim, I think you hit on why the evangelicals support her cause. She's repented and they sense sincerity. Refusing to forgive kind of makes a mockery of Christianity.
You may notice, there is no direct quote from her, in any of the stuff you cited, saying she only did it once. The writer may have extrapolated, or, to be charitable, misunderstood. Don't see the big deal, unless she is actually lying. I wish the press, even in direct-audience newsletters, would get their facts straight. My experience though, anytime I've been personally aware of something in the newspaper, is that reporters rarely file any stories without little details that are inaccurate. You yourself here seem to be assuming that she said she only acted in porn films once and I don't see any basis for that assumption. Maybe you didn't check your facts or, if so, you didn't present them here.
Overall, there's a case for banning former porn stars from working in public schools. Hiring a teacher should be based on finding the best person to teach the kids not on rights or entitlement status of the job applicant. If she has done this in the past, she's a risk. Hopefully a good risk but she doesn't have a presumptive entitlement to the job. If she's sincere, she'll probably have no trouble finding a job in a private Christian school.
H.A.
Anon, I don't think you will find very many people who are willing to ignore an adult having sex with children. A teacher, at least in grades K through 12, could and should lose their job for that sort of thing, even if they are not charged with a crime.
The age of consent in most states is 16, so if a coach is having sex with high-school students, it is likely that 1.it's not a crime, and 2.you could get a good debate going about whether a 17- or 18-year-old girl is a "child."
PB
HA -- In the Rita Cosby interview, she clarified that it was more than once, when Rita kept repeating that it was just one time. In other interviews she says it was just once, eleven years ago. Can't tell if she's paraphrased or quoted.
JimK
JimK sounds like you are hot for teacher.
PasserBy said...
I tryed that. They will not go on the recored about there views of the age of consent. The elementary school teacher was the worst of the two I think a couple of my friends were his... Well we never talk about it.
The issue of a teacher having sex with a student isn't necessarily the age of consent- you could have students who are quite old in High school these days. When I went to school, a teacher could not date a student in the school system- it was a reason for being fired- dating- not sex. Even today many universities have policies on dating their students so if high schools have a policy that dating a student is not allowed- why would a teacher question it?
what if it is not your teacher?
what about 14?
•Can she teach effectively when her background is known to her students?
•Can she maintain discipline and order among teens who have access to her films through the internet and multiple sources for video/DVD?
Nothing that can be made available on the internet is secret any more. I believe that it is just a matter of time before someone posts the old films.
She certainly can repent of her youthful employment in “adult entertainment.” She can do so for any number of reasons, including religious faith. She can live honorably and she may never do a thing to harm any person. She deserves, as we all do, a chance to move on and be the person she wants to be. She can be “forgiven,” if that’s what it takes for others live and let live. I don’t think that acting in porn films needs to be forgiven, necessarily. I just think it’s gross.
For me the real issue has to do with electronic media and the impulses of teenagers to know, to see, to stir things up, and to get their own selves stirred up as well. I’d like to say something about the “testosterone stew” of adolescent manhood, but that would be snarky, and I am sure that there are plenty of girls who would happily use a teacher’s past to make life more interesting. If I were involved in the hiring of this teacher, I would be concerned about having this blasted thing come up year after year, with incoming freshmen continuing to “discover” websites with highlights from the science teacher’s film career. Eventually some student would no doubt acquire copies of the DVDs and share them with her (or his) friends.
How long would it take for this to die down? What school administrator or department chair wants to deal with the rumors and uproar on an on-going basis?
When I was in high school, in the pre-internet dark ages, a teacher gave her car keys to a student and asked him to bring some materials she had in the trunk of her car. He took the opportunity to go through her entire car, including the glove department, where he found a package of photographs her boyfriend had taken during their most intimate moments. The student took the photographs and showed them to his friends. I got the impression that they were rather widely distributed among the student body, but I never saw them. I heard some pretty wild rumors about what the teacher and her boyfriend were doing in the pictures, so I expect that more people “saw” them by hear-say than in fact. Within two days that teacher had been re-assigned to an administrative position at the BOE offices. She wasn’t charged as she had done nothing illegal, but there were many in the community who thought she should be fired for her “indecency.” The student was charged with petty theft and suspended for a few days.
This was a case of many stupidities piled onto one another, but the bottom line was that she couldn’t teach those students in that school. There was no way for the classes she taught to go forward in an orderly way. I would expect similar problems with the ex-porn actress.
PasserBy said...
Anon, I don't think you will find very many people who are willing to ignore an adult having sex with children
you would be surprised!!!
I live in Paducah, KY of which Reidland is what some would calla suburb of Paducah. I have heard/read all angles on this story as it has been run in the ground around here.
I heard/read so many stories of her saying that she has changed her ways and is now a changed person spiritualy but ...I have a close friend that visted one of the local strip clubs and he saw her there with 2 male "friends". That doesn't seem to be a place one would frequent with that persons' past in question and the fact that she wants her teaching job back.
I think on the more recent "film" dates, these are films that compile previously shot scenes regurgitated for public consumption. I saw this on TV and the show mentioned that her scenes had been repackaged in these compilations. So, original scenes shot in 94? 95?
So much for improving one's self huh? I grew up in the Paducah area and this is quite typical of the "Holier Than Thou" attitude that has been perpetuated there for many years. Had it not been for this primitive mindset Paducah would have been able to prosper instead of stagnate. Most people I have spoken to that have relocated to another area from Paducah tell me that this was the best move they ever made...it certainly was for me! I can understand why this lady wants to be a teacher. We grossly underpay our teachers. A good teacher should never have to want for anything...except people that want to learn. Obviously Reidland High School doesn't fit into this category because I see the same old McCracken County self righteous majority rearing it's ugly head & boldly stating that they are not going to stand for this "nasty" person (that has quite obviously turned her life around in order to help others)to teach their children...while their own "trusted" relatives or friends could very well be sexual predators. Paducah needs to address real issues that are harmful to their children such as online predators,alcohol abuse,drug abuse & many other very real dangers that face our precious youth. Perhaps Ms Dye's experiences in her sordid past would serve the community well in that she knows what signs to look for when things are going wrong in a child's day to day experiences. Granted...she should be monitored on a regular basis...but aren't all teachers treated in this fashion? If not,they should be. How many of our teachers of late have been found having sex with underage children? Even a single incident is way too much. Ms Dye has overcome tremendous odds to turn her life around...why not USE this valuable experience to root out the REAL threats to our children?But then....we ARE talking about Paducah,Kentucky. For the sake of your sanity Terricka Dye...leave that backwards place...they don't want to progress!
Da Blu3z
PapaBlu3z, how about you leave and take your fucking idiot screen name with you. Paducah is a river town with a long history of strip joints and even prostitution. Blu3z wants to paint it as Mayberry, it fits what the coasts want to believe about middle America. Tericka DID NOT GET FIRED! Her contract was not renewed. She didn't fail to get one red cent that she was promised when she signed the contract. As far as Reidland High goes, its not the best high school, but its not the worst either. No students get beat to death there, so I guess that makes it backwards in the moronic carbon cluster that serves as your brain. Hell, she told somebody and word got around. There's a half million chicks that have done porn. Usually with heavy make-up on. The chances are silly low that someone would see her obscure DP movie and put it together with a teacher 10 years older with a different hairstyle and look. The press ran with the story because she was a teacher. Anybody that disagrees with me is a imbecile. HA!
Completely unrelated to the discussion at hand. An old and learned sage once told me "Every whore's got a sad story". That old man was right.
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