Naked Teachers
Educator Fights to Keep Her Job
By Daniel Muniz

The facts are very simple. Tamara Hoover is an outstanding arts teacher at Austin High School in Austin Texas. And being an artist, Hoover felt that it was absolutely innocuous to have her nude pictures posted on the Flickr.com web site. The photographs show her nakedness while doing routine daily activities such as taking a shower, getting dressed, lifting weights, and even in bed.

Hoover insists that she will continue to participate in this activity so her pictures are not a one-time episode of going wild at Spring Break or being drunk at a bar. Unsurprisingly, she insists that the photographs are a natural creative expression and that they do not represent pornography. She explains her motivations as:

But the school district felt that the problem was indeed obvious. That is that the pictures display nudity and she is a teacher in a classroom full of minors. As a result, not only did the district remove her from her school but they also attempted to have her teaching certificate revoked. Hoover remains defiant and intends to fight this out in court.

Now I personally want to avoid the knee-jerk reactions that will come from conservatives and from liberals. I just want to approach this subject using reason and a sense of practicality.

First, I will tip my hat and say that I am not a puritanical conservative thus I personally do not have the same kind of inhibition with nudity as art as other social conservatives may have. But I do agree that there is a dividing line between an artistic expression and that of titillation. And people have different thresholds for what they consider art to be and that should be the basis for this argument.

For most professions, people really don’t care what employees do in their off time as long as it doesn’t interfere in their job or create an unwarranted distraction for their employer. And for most people, that is a sensible approach that respects privacy and personal freedom.

When private expression becomes public, most people still don’t have a problem with it as long as it doesn’t intrude into the workplace or become a nuisance for everyone else at work.

Now to place this incident in its proper context, Tamara Hoover still teaches minors. Naked pictures of herself are accessible to the entire student body as well as to the public. Although most web sites prohibit minors from viewing such material, it is accepted knowledge that kids will view it anyways. And that is how school officials found out about it in the first place. Students were already aware of her nude pictures and they alerted another teacher who informed the school administrators.

Below is an interesting observation from Bill Shaw, professor of law and ethics in business at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas:

So do the nude pictures represent titillation and are students going to be aroused or feel that this is a nuisance?

About the only way to answer that question is for every parent to personally view the photographs and that is where the argument collapses on itself. The process of parents viewing pictures of a naked teacher does not lend itself to credibility for an educator.

But the issue of expression is still important and it should be. But the drawback is that being a teacher in the classroom demands a higher level of scrutiny, especially in today’s awareness of sexual predators.

What was once practically non-existent is now garnering national attention of young attractive female educators having sex with their students. As a result, the public has become more vigilant in demanding that their schools do not harbor employees with any kind of history connected with sex crimes or any perception of a proclivity for it.

Although art is not a crime, the perception of naked teachers is an issue that school districts have to take into account because it would irresponsible for them not to. Certain miscreant female teachers who have been arrested for having sex with young boys have shown their victims their nude pictures.

Consequently, it is not an undue expectation for a school to establish safeguards that enhance the personal safety of their students. Out of practicality, it is not unreasonable for Hoover’s employer to pursue this path. The public has a right to be vigilant in this regard and they will continue to protect children.

But from this point on, school districts must now publicly inform their employees what they deem as irresponsible behavior especially in this environment of heightened awareness of sexual predators. It was not an issue in the past but it will undoubtedly come up again in the future.

As for Hoover, she has to pick another profession that is outside of a room full of minors if she wants to continue to display to the public her nakedness.

UPDATE
With an offer of a $14,850 settlement from the school board, Hoover agreed to resign.

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