More Teachers Fired for Prostitution

"Little Rock Teacher Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Prostitution" --this Fox headline announced that Solona Islam, a Little Rock Arkansas high school teacher was busted for prostitution in November but that her school district did not learn of the charge until recently. She officially resigned from her position, although I suspect it was worded as a resignation to look better to future employers.

Melissa Petro was also forced from her position as a public school teacher when her openness about her past life as a prostitute was finally noticed by her school district.

Joining these two is Amber Carter, a fourth-grade teacher who skipped class after arranging for an act of prostitution on the school's computers. She is currently on administrative leave now that her part time job as a prostitute has been revealed.

While Melissa Petro's case is concerning a past career choice, the other two ladies were actively pursuing this career to make their financial ends meet. The teaching profession is notorious for low pay and apparently these ladies decided to pursue unorthodox and illegal methods of paying their bills. In light of the huge bonuses we give executives for selling us toothpaste or providing us with cable television it reveals just how low we rank the education of our children.

When a famous celebrity can walk around half naked and earn millions of dollars, but our government cannot afford to pay the teachers of our future a living wage, does it not tell us that something is seriously wrong with the current pay scale of the nation? It is claimed that "the less you work the more you are paid" and in the case of teachers this is exactly correct.

I do not argue that teachers actively pursuing prostitution as a career while teaching our young is a good thing--I personally feel that it sets a bad example for our young. However what is worse: the fact that these women became prostitutes, or that they were forced to do it to supplement their paltry teaching salaries? What does that teach our children about their value when they discover that the ones who teach them are forced to sell their bodies just to be able to afford to continue educating them?

I have met many teachers in my life. The ones who are not fortunate enough to have gainfully employed spouses live a very Spartan life. They must sacrifice financially in order to pursue their desire to teach young ones, and the ones who creatively supplement their incomes and get caught are severely punished by the loss of their jobs and their reputations.

If all a teacher really wanted to do was make more money all she would need to do is apply for a job in the commercial sector, but instead she is trying to provide this world and our young with a better and brighter future. To do so she is relegated to a live of virtual poverty in gratitude.

While I do not personally agree with the decisions these teachers made to pursue prostitution while actively teaching, I am more saddened about what this says about us as a nation than anything.

Seriously, folks: if we paid our teachers better these ladies would not have had to pay their bills on their backsides. They could have focused more on educating our children instead.