By Stewart Tongue
YNOT – Stacie Halas is back for another round with the Oxnard [Calif.] School District, which fired her almost a year ago when her adult-entertainment past was exposed. After exhausting all the appeals channels within the educational system, she upped the stakes by filing a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court.
In April 2012, Halas, 32, was an eighth-grade science teacher at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School when students discovered an online video featuring her performance under the nom de porn Tiffany Six. The school terminated her employment, saying a lack of respect incumbent upon Halas’ past would compromise her ability to keep order and, consequently, her effectiveness as a teacher. In addition, school administrators accused Halas of deceit, because she had been fired from another California teaching job earlier on the same grounds.
Halas exhausted her administrative appeals in January, when a three-judge panel upheld the school’s decision.
Now Halas and her attorney, Richard Schwab, want the Superior Court to weigh in, on the grounds that the administrative panel allowed personal bias to overrule matters of law.
“I think we have to look at what is the purpose of a hearing,” Schwab told the Ventura County Star. “Is it to look at your past and judge you? If that’s the case, the lessons we teach our children are wasted. We are teaching our children that if you engage in a behavior, even if it’s not unlawful, you may be put in a position where you may not follow your dreams. You cannot dig yourself out of a mistake.”
Halas has maintained since the beginning she worked in porn only briefly because she was desperate to pay bills, and her porn career ended before her teaching career began. However, The Smoking Gun pointed out she evidently made at least one video while employed as a teacher:
In a behind-the-scenes interview segment attached to Jules Jordan’s 2006 flick No Cum Dodging Allowed 7, Halas told the interviewer that appearing in porn was “very risky for me, because I am a teacher.” With a laugh, she added “at least I didn’t do the students.”
According to her attorney, Halas wants nothing more than to be reinstated as a teacher. Both the attorney and his client believe a person’s past shouldn’t define her future.
“[Halas] would like to return to her position as a teacher in the Oxnard School District and continue to perform in a positive manner,” Schwab to the Ventura County Star. “We are anxious and hopeful that this matter will be resolved in a positive manner and uphold the principles that are fundamental to this country.”
[SIZE=1]Image: Stacie Halas as Tiffany Six in one of the 22 scenes in which she performed.[/SIZE]
