Friday October 3, 2008

Teacher by day, hooker by night

TALE OF TWO CITIES
AUCKLAND
By CHARLES CHAN

AN Auckland primary school teacher who moonlights as a prostitute has certainly placed the education authorities in an awkward position.

The teacher’s secret life hit the headlines in The Herald on Sunday after a student’s parent reported her to her principal.

In another country, she would have been dismissed from her job but in New Zealand, it’s not that simple.

One can understand why most parents will be morally outraged over the idea of their children’s teachers working as prostitutes at night but the principal is caught in a dilemma.

He is worried about the reaction of other parents if they found out about the teacher’s second job as a sex worker but he cannot sack her or order her to stop turning tricks as the Labour-led government has made prostitution a lawful and legitimate occupation.

To penalise somebody holding down a second job that is constitutionally lawful can be seen as a violation of that person’s civil right.

The teacher, a 30-something mother of two, has defended her situation to the principal, arguing what she did in her own time was no concern to him, that it was a private matter and it was not affecting her performance as a teacher.

According to The Herald report, the matter has been referred to the school’s board of trustees which will decide whether to ignore the issue, discipline the teacher or leave it to the Teachers’ Council to pass judgement.

An employment lawyer, John Hannan, commented that schools should have policies to prevent teachers taking secondary jobs, or make sure that they first seek approval from their boards.

Even if the board in this case did not have such a policy, he believed it could still ask the teacher to quit prostitution and if she refused, it could threaten dismissal.

“It’s a case of whether the outside employment is regarded incompatible with the role of a teacher in terms of role-modelling and in terms of any policies that the board of trustees might have in place,” he said.

Still, the issue is a tricky one to adjudicate as nothing like it has ever come up before the Teachers’ Council and so it does not have a precedent for boards to follow.

Teachers’ Council director Dr Peter Lind said the key issue was whether the teacher’s second job was having an impact on her professional teaching duties. Determining this would require actual evidence.

Catherine Healy, national co-ordinator of the Prostitutes Collective (union), said she knew of several teachers who worked in second jobs as prostitutes.

“There is no incompatibility between a woman who is a teacher and who works as a sex worker,” she said.

“I can’t imagine what the problem would be.”

Teachers in primary schools earn between $42,600 and $66,000 a year and experienced teachers who take on increased responsibility can earn more.

Teachers aren’t the only ones who supplement their incomes by working as prostitutes in their spare time.

Two years ago, an Auckland policewoman got into trouble with her bosses for moonlighting as a sex worker at a top massage parlour. She earned up to $500 a night working in the parlour, on top of taking home at least $43,000 a year as an officer.

Police bosses said at the time that the secondary employment would never have been approved because that kind of work was seen to be inappropriate and incompatible with policing.

An investigation was carried out and the woman was able to keep her job in the police.