The so-called “Hooker Teacher” Tells Her Side

Regular Sex Feed readers will have noted that it is a sad fact that public school teachers and employees can get into trouble and even lose their jobs over having almost anything to do with sex. Last September, we noted a controversy about Melissa Petro, an elementary school teacher in the Bronx, N.Y., who was reassigned after writing about her former life as a sex worker.

Yesterday, Petro told her side of the story and the aftermath in a first-person article on Salon.com: The “Hooker Teacher” tells all.

She says: “Eight months after the story broke, I am jobless. I cannot get hired. And even my biggest supporters ask me privately: ‘But seriously, what were you thinking?’ The answer is complicated. I was being idealistic. I was being provocative. I was naive. I picked a fight that I thought I could win—and I was wrong.”

We think New York, a city we love, has a lot to be ashamed about in the way it’s treated Petro. And we admire her for concluding:

“Despite all I've lost, though, I refuse to let this defeat me. I know there would be something worse than living with the consequences of speaking my truth: living in silence. Let's hope potential employers take note: I didn't lose my job for being a hooker. I lost my job for being a writer.”