Hot for Teacher Update
If you’re coming here in search of nude photos of Austin, Texas school teacher, Tamara Hoover, you’ve come to the wrong place. The images photographs were taken by a very talented artist named Celesta Danger. Here photos are online at her Flickr website. However, she has since removed many of the controversial images from her website. Here’s an excerpt posted by her on Tamara Hoover’s blog:
“After Tamara was fired from her job as an AISD high school art teacher, I am removing many images of her for the time being. With all the media attention, I am now seen as a pornographer and unfortunately, I’m getting many porn collectors and those wishing to use and post my images of Tamara in a crude, lascivious manner and not to mention the Austin American Statesman running an article this morning noting how quick and easy it was for them to break into my Flickr account and access my Private images.
I’ve received much criticism about my homosexual relationship with Tamara, removing my images, posting my images, and just being a poor artist in general. It is important to note that none of the criticism I’ve received has affected my decision take down some of our images.”
In my opinion, the images I saw were tastefully done. Just because I’m a conservative doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good artistic images when I see them. Furthermore, I don’t see any reason why Ms. Hoover or Ms. Danger should be subject to so much criticism. According to the Austin American Statesmen story (you need to register to access it), the school district requires their employees to adhere to a moral turpitude clause:
Hoover defended her actions in a blog by saying that the pictures are not pornography but “artistic photography” and that she neither knew nor had any control over which photographs were posted by the photographer.
The school district’s policies regarding employee behavior include a moral turpitude clause that prohibits “base, vile, or depraved acts that are intended to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of the actor.”
Based on what I’ve seen, those images don’t seem to cross any lines. Ms. Hoover’s mistake was to allow a link between her MySpace website and the Flickr website belonging to Celesta Danger. It is common knowledge that the MySpace blogosphere is largely populated by high school aged kids. So it was more than likely that her photos would’ve been discovered by one of her students.
UPDATE: Kudos to the Gullible Skeptic for finding this video.