Should a school secretary be fired for being in Porn?

Quoted from Care2 petition house: April 8, 2011.

''An administrative assistant in a Quebec high school has been fired from her job because a student discovered that she had a second career – as a porn actress.

A month ago, Samantha Ardente (her stage name) was approached by a 14-year-old student at Etchemins Secondary School, on the south shore of Quebec City. The student asked her for her autograph, saying he had seen her in a porn film online. Ardente refused the autograph, and asked the student to keep his discovery quiet.

Instead, the student did exactly the opposite: he created a Facebook page as Ardente and uploaded a racy profile picture. As the word of the page and Ardente’s films spread through the school, the student was suspended for the Facebook page – and Ardente was suspended for the porn.

Ardente and the school board entered into negotiations to attempt to save her job, discussing the possibility of transferring her to another job. During the negotiations, Ardente agreed to not appear in any more porn films. However, she claims that the school board was requesting she make certain unspecified changes in her personal life, which she refused to do. The school board then made the decision to fire her, stating to the CBC that her “actions were in violation of the school’s mission and values.”

“We considered the facts and actions that led to this incident were inappropriate, unacceptable and incompatible not only with our mission but also with our values that we wish to teach our young students,” school board chair Leopold Castonguay told reporters after the meeting.

Ardente says she will appeal the firing through her union.

The situation is unfortunate for many and prompts serious questions. While the school board may not approve of pornography, the fact is that it is a legal business. The firing does not appear to be over the fact that she held a second job, only the nature of that second job. What is the legal basis for firing Ardente, then, if she was performing her secretarial job adequately?

While many feel moral objections to pornography, can any of these objections be translated into a legal case? More disturbingly, Ardente did not “out” herself to the school; rather, she was “outed” by a student, and a 14-year-old one at that. Is Ardente being fired because of the bad behavior of the student? Should the school instead be addressing the issue of their students accessing porn online in the first place?

A mess indeed.''