OXNARD, Calif.—The administrative hearing that will decide whether former adult performer Stacie Halas gets to keep her job as a middle school teacher in the Oxnard School District came to a close today after six days of testimony before a three-judge panel. Halas was supposed to testify for a third time yesterday, but apparently did not. Instead, it was the "attorneys representing Halas and the school district [who] closed the hearing by characterizing the case as one that was about deceit and redemption," the Ventura County Star reported.
Nitasha Sawhney, the lawyer for the school district, made no bones about the manner in which her employer perceives of Halas, who is currently on paid administrative leave after have taught at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard for three years with a record that all agreed was unblemished until her past controversial employment was discovered earlier this year.
"Being a teacher comes with great responsibility," said Sawhney. "They are exemplars. Teachers are trusted with much more than the curriculum. In this case, Ms. Halas has failed the district's standard and the legal standard as exemplar and role model."
Attempting to head off arguments already made on behalf of Halas that she should not be punished for past mistakes, Sawhney, continued, "This is not a case of a young woman who made a mistake many moons ago and then found her way. This is a case of Ms. Halas' conduct, about her impact on the school district and her many, many lies."
As reported, Halas has testified late last week that she had not purposefully lied about her past when confronted by school officials looking into reports that porn with her in it had been seen online. "I did not think there was anything on the internet," she told the panel.
The school district, though, has found itself forced to try to make the "many, many lies" claim stick after Superintendent Jeff Chancer said it "was 'possible' to keep an employee who was involved in pornography but not when the employee continually lies."
Likewise, Halas' attorney has also found himself limited to arguing that his client should not be punished for having successfully turned her life around, an argument that he drove home again yesterday with increasingly hyperbolic language.
"She went from the abyss of the adult industry … and she has escaped. She's one of the lucky ones," Schwab told the panel. "This is not evidently unfit (to teach), this is finding a new life. This is what you call positive."
But he did not stop there. "In his closing statement," the Star reported, "Schwab also referred to the biblical tale of the woman who committed adultery and faced execution."
"Metaphorically,' he added, "we are holding stones at this time. We today have that decision to make. Do we throw that stone?"
Schwab, of course, has one job only, to gain a win for his client, but for those in the adult industry who fight the cultural shame that so often comes with the job, it's unfortunate that in trying to paint a positive image of Stacie Halas—who, let's not forget, broke no laws when she worked in porn for two years—Schwab picked up a few stones of his own and lobbed them directly at the performers who still ply a legal trade in porn.
Sawhney also addressed the porn trade directly, saying, according to the Star, that Halas had "conducted immoral activity" and thus deserves being fired. She also responded to testimony provided by Halas today about her futile efforts to find work in 2006, when she allegedly was "buried by student loans and credit card debt totaling $100,000."
"I couldn't find any jobs," she said. "I was getting to the point where I needed a check. I got desperate."
That comment, of course, contradicts the statement made by Superintendent Chancer that a past in porn would not be an automatic disqualifier.
That said, everyone in the courtroom, from lawyers to judges to spectators, seemd to agree that porn is inherently bad. Indeed, in response to Sawhney's comments, Schwab replied that it was "insulting" and "degrading" to even suggest that Halas enjoyed her time in porn, though he did allow that she sought work in the "legal" and "vibrant" industry out of financial necessity.
Her ability to reform, he repeated yet again, is what the panel needs to keep foremost in their minds. ""Do we tell our children, if you've dug a hole so deep … to forget about it, there's no future for you?" he asked. "In this country, we do have opportunity and second chances and we should encourage people to do better if they've made mistakes."
Despite prior reports that "the administrative panel has 100 days from the end of the hearing to make a ruling," the Star is now reporting that it has 30 days in which to deliberate.
"If the commission finds the district is right in dismissing Halas," it reported today, "it would be up to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to determine whether she can keep her credentials. Whatever the commission decides, both sides will have the opportunity to appeal to the Ventura County Superior Court."
