NYC Pushes To Fire Melissa Petro, Teacher Who Blogged About Craigslist Sex Work

In September 2010, New York City art teacher Melissa Petro wrote a blog post on HuffPost about her time working as a prostitute using Craigslist's adult services section.

After her past was revealed, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg personally ordered Petro out of her classroom, reports the New York Post.

According to video footage of Petro performing at open mic nights, the 30-year-old teacher is also open about the time she spent being paid to work as a stripper in Mexico.

Petro has taught at P.S. 70 in the Bronx since 2007. Now, education officials are trying to permanently remove Petro from her post -- although she became a tenured teacher just days before blogging about her experiences in sex work.

Although firing a tenured teacher is complicated, the New York City Department of Education is pushing ahead.

The New York Post reports that city officials charged Petro on Wednesday, Dec. 1, with charges of "conduct unbecoming a teacher."

However, officials declined to release the full report detailing the charges against Petro, NY Daily News reports.

Comments

[cosmiCataclysm]

10:47 PM on 12/07/2010

Ohio country-gal sees the big city, goes to Mexico, loses control, now we're supposed to think it's deep? Ha!

[cosmiCataclysm]

10:31 PM on 12/07/2010

I wouldn't be so thrilled to have a child under the tutelage of person so proud of being absolutely trashy.

[Kelly Wentzel]

05:27 PM on 12/07/2010

As a college/university professor - no problem. K-12 - not so accommodating.

[hetrose]

03:19 PM on 12/07/2010

Oh my God! The kids may realize she has boobies and knows how to use them! Run screaming and hide!

[been2there]

10:01 PM on 12/06/2010

Sorry, but that won't fly. If she were a current prostitute, maybe. Her past does not impinge on her teaching, and it is her teaching that determines her employment.

[Danek Greori]

10:15 AM on 12/06/2010

Unless she is working as both a sex worker AND a teacher currently, why should she be fired? Since when does having a worse job in the past mean you can't have a bad job in the future?

[captainindustry]

11:08 AM on 12/07/2010

If she had kept it quiet and just went about her business as a teacher, there would not be an issue.

Her "conduct unbecoming" is not her past, it is her present. She is obviously not focused on her profession as a teacher. If she were, she would not drag the profession down this tawdry and dangerous hiway.

[captainindustry]

09:35 AM on 12/06/2010

I don't think of her as a teacher so much as a standup comedianne who did a stint as an art teacher to help with the rent till she makes it on the circuit.

She's seems nice enough, but personally, I think she overstepped the boundary, and should be removed from the classroom.

Some of our students are very impressionable.

[HarrietM]

07:54 PM on 12/07/2010

Nonsense. She never hid who she was and she used her writing to work through her own personal demons caused by her past. She was not writing as an advocate of prostitution but as a survivor.

My kids are not so impressionable that they can't hear about prostitution without wanting to run out and hook for a living. As a rural housewife in an extremely conservative area I would be happy for this woman to teach art & writing to my kids.

Any reasonable kid can handle information if their adults are capable of explaining it properly.

[Ivyleaguequaker]

05:01 PM on 12/06/2010

Let's just say there are other ways of getting one's act together that won't come back and bite you in the you know where!!

[Carlos Quintero]

09:31 PM on 12/05/2010

"Conduct Unbecoming" Hmm that sounds like a catch all to me. This teacher seems to have been honest about her past. If common sense prevails then this teacher will keep her job. However since this is a tenured teacher about to lose her job, common sense has nothing to do with this matter.

[onwisconsin]

05:54 PM on 12/05/2010

They'll have to prove nexus with her teaching commitments, otherwise the young woman will have quite a good case. If it doesn't connect to her classroom and she wasn't convicted of a crime, they'll have a difficult time with pushing her out.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

11:13 AM on 12/05/2010

how does conduct unbecoming a teacher occure before you are a teacher?
Bloomburg needs to fire any on e who was an arsonist, a Car theif,a drug addict,
Sold insurance, real estate,
walstreet dirivitives or charge 10$ to save a parking space for ya!FIRST!
 
 

[vonbek]

06:18 AM on 12/05/2010

Let's fire a teacher for something she did in the past that is not illegal. But lets not fire or arrest the banksters who destroyed our economy. This country better get its priorities strait or we are all doomed.

[cosmiCataclysm]

10:30 PM on 12/07/2010

"Let's fire a teacher for something she did in the past that is not illegal"

Prostitution isn't illegal?

[porcamiseria]

08:45 PM on 12/04/2010

After viewing about 40 seconds of her "open mic" routine, I'd have to say "don't quit your day job" but I guess it's a little late for that....

It amazes me the stupid stuff people reveal about themselves on the Internet and in public. Gotta wonder.

[porcamiseria]

08:38 PM on 12/04/2010

"conduct unbecoming a teacher" -- i.e. better suited for a career in politics! (Somebody give me a rim shot!)

[captainindustry]

11:25 AM on 12/05/2010

ba doom POW!!!

[mlaiuppa]

02:42 PM on 12/04/2010

They are going to fire her for something she did BEFORE she was a teacher because she exercised her free speech rights under the constitution to talk about it. Perhaps a teachable moment.

This is just another example of how a certain segment of the population wants teachers to be second hand citizens and take away their constitutional rights. The right to organize being the first.

Are teachers the new clergy? Taking vows of poverty, silence and obedience the minute they sign that contract.