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Hooker-Turned-Teacher's Tenure Questioned
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 29, 2010
Modified Sep 29, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 29, 2010
Modified Sep 29, 2010
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The Post is furious that former stripper and sex worker-turned-P.S. 70 art teacher Melissa Petro has tenure, which means that it will probably be near impossible for the Department of Education to fire her. Though Petro has been reassigned (she's doing administrative work somewhere), kicking her off DOE payroll involves 83 steps, and this Post editorial offers some of them: "Stage 1: Principal recommends firing. Stage 2: Committee reviews principal. Stage 3: Chancellor reviews committee. Stage 4: Hearing reviews chancellor." However, the paper is hopeful, "The Office of Special Investigations is reviewing her case, and city conduct codes and state regulations on "moral character" may prove grounds for firing."
Mayor Bloomberg even weighed in, saying, "What our legal rights are, whether she broke the law in terms of applying and getting tenure or whether the system just broke down that's being investigated." Pero's provocative past has become an issue ever since she wrote a Huffington Post essay about accepting money for sexual services, via Craigslist's now-closed erotic services section. And she wrote it under her own name, acknowledged herself as an "educator." And then videos of her discussing working as a stripping (or comparing teaching to having sex with her boyfriend) have surfaced.
In the meantime, here's more of the Post's editorial on hating automatic tenure (which Bloomberg wants to end): "So here's tenure's magic formula: A prostitute teaches art for three years, and suddenly she's Maria Montessori. Even more bitter truth: If you can't even fire a hooker, what hope is there of getting rid of run-of-the-mill schmoes who can't teach math or history?"
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melissa petro
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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