OPINION:
In the span of just a few weeks, two female teachers at St. Clair High School in Missouri were suspended for posting pornographic videos of themselves to OnlyFans, an online site that allows users to get paid for sexually explicit content.
File this under Life Lessons You Never Thought Had To Be Taught.
Are we really at the point in America where teachers have to be told that moonlighting as a porn star is a big no-no?
“I LOVE education and teaching, and I loved seeing my students and cheerleaders learn and grow into themselves. I’m damned good at helping them do that,” said Megan Gaither, a 31-year-old English teacher and varsity cheerleading coach in a Facebook post on the heels of her suspension.
“At least I didn’t try to neglect my duties of paying back what I borrowed to get educated, right? I made the adult choice of getting a side hustle,” she continued. “And guess what? It’s working out ok so far.”
Gaither’s rationale for jumping into porn was her $47,000 teacher’s salary — too low, she said, to make it through the long summer months when school is closed. OnlyFans, she said, gave her an extra $3,000 to $5,000 per month.
Her fellow school porn star, Brianna Coppage, 28 — put on leave by the same school’s administrators in September — has earned nearly $1 million from her OnlyFans work, Fox News reported. That’s compared to the $42,000 she made as a teacher. And following her suspension, Coppage quit teaching and now brags about her tens of thousands of OnlyFans followers.
Neither Gaither nor Coppage are apologetic or ashamed.
“I don’t regret it,” Coppage said, the New York Post reported. “People are allowed to have personal lives outside of their career.”
And from Gaither — this: “In order to make change, you have to make noise and I think that is what Brianna [Coppage] did. And I think that’s what maybe I’m getting ready to do — make noise about how unfair teacher pay can be.”
Low pay does not lead teachers to take on porn roles for supplemental income. Low morals — no morals — do.
Besides, teacher pay isn’t actually that low, when you take into consideration the cost of living for the community; days off; hours worked; and stress factors. In St. Clair, the cost of living for housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, taxes and other necessities is an estimated 12 percent lower than the U.S. average, and 3 percent lower than the Missouri state average, according to BestPlaces.net.
“A typical home costs $130,000, which is 61.5 percent less expensive than the national average of $338,100 and 38.8 percent less expensive than the average Missouri home, at $212,300. Renting a two-bedroom unit in St. Clair costs $860 per month, which is 39.9 percent more than the national average of $1,430 and 10.5 percent cheaper than the state average of $950,” BestPlaces.net reported.
Gaither, at $47,500, and Coppage, at $42,000, earned more than the amounts the Census Bureau estimated as averages for both individuals and households in St. Clair — at $30,752 and $40,947, respectively.
“I started it, one, to just supplement my income. … Like, I have student loans. I was working on my third degree. So, I also have a master’s degree in education and then I was working on my specialist degree,” Coppage said the New York Post reported.
Most Americans struggle to various degrees to pay the bills, pay for education, pay for basic living necessities and then save. Most Americans do not take on second jobs in the porn industry.
The difference between those who do and those who don’t is a matter of morals.
And it’s hard to accept the idea that teachers — the ones entrusted with protecting our children for the better part of the day — have to actually be told that posing in sexually suggestive manners in various states of undress, for money, online, for public viewing — that this sex work is inappropriate.
It’s bad enough that the three R’s — reading, writing, ‘rithmetic — have been supplanted by climate change propaganda, anti-American history and socialism over capitalism. Now parents have to protect their kids from teachers who parade their bodies as sex objects for money? The public school systems are dead. Porn stars should not be teaching in the classrooms. Honestly, that just seems common sense.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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