So get this...
Apparently Kaitlyn Pearson, a 23 yr old Fitchburg, MA special needs teacher's aide was placed on administrative leave on Jan 17 after an anonymous packet containing Pearson's modeling photos were mailed to both the local paper, Sentinal & Enterprise and Fitchburg school officials. This created a whole bru-haha that set the city buzzing.
Facts are: Kaitlyn did pose for "racy" pictures. They certainly do not constitute "pornography", but she was photographed scantily clad, embracing other semi clothed women. The question here is what does this have to do with her teaching duties? Her reputation as a teacher's aide is excellent. She is well respected by her colleagues and is reportedly a devoted teacher.
A local principal of another middle school, not the school Pearson works in, wrote a letter in her defense:
In the letter, Principal Fran Thomas Jr. of Memorial Middle School said that while he doesn’t know Pearson, he objected to the “cowardice” of the anonymous packet sender. “As a parent and an educator, I am far, far, far, more concerned about a student being in a classroom with petty, vindictive, sneaky, gutless bullies than with a former model.” Sneaks, he said, are the ones who shouldn’t be working in schools.
As The Boston Herald's Margery Eagan pointed out today: If Scott Brown can pose nude for Cosmopolitian and be voted into the US Senate, with rumors swirling around his possible Presidential candidacy in 2016, why is it such a crime for Kaitlyn Pearson to model in her spare time?
Evidently the powers that be agree. In a recent press release, Fitchburg Superintendent Andre Ravenelle said that "after reviewing all relevant information" the school reinstated Kaitlyn Pearson on Tuesday.
Amen. It's nice to see that for once, doing the right thing ended up being the right thing to do.
