Florida reinstates teacher fired over gay porn history

Shawn Loftis

In a blow to pearl-clutchers everywhere, the State of Florida has ruled that mindless puritanism and possible bigotry are not satisfactory reasons for forcing an innocent teacher out of his job:

A part-time teacher's gay porn past isn't reason enough to keep him out of the classroom, according to Florida education officials.

Shawn Loftis, who was booted from the Miami-Dade public school system last year, can go back to teaching, the Florida Education Practices Commission in Orlando ruled Friday.

He could even turn it into a full-time job, the commission decided.

Loftis — who starred in gay porn films under the name Collin O'Neil — was teaching at Nautilus Middle School when the principal learned of his past, according to WPLG 10 News.

The district suspended the substitute in January 2011, then his teacher’s certification was revoked in April, despite the fact that he’d left his porn career behind.

The commission said his past pursuits were not illegal and the school did not have the authority to dismiss him on that basis. Loftis also argued that he hoped to use his role as a teacher to help guide students away from making the choices he had made.

It’s high time people everywhere, particularly school officials, realized that whatever previous occupation someone may have had, no matter how “icky” they may think it is, has absolutely no bearing on that person’s moral character, nor on their ability to function as an educator.

And this, by the way, is a lesson that should be forcibly taught to some of the typical mental trilobites in the article’s comments:

Oscar Major: Don't have to guess what this guy will be teaching your kids. We have become a nation of perversion bordering on insanity. A nation that has no moral compass is doomed to failure.

WhoWouldHaveThunk: We're a doomed society. In a thousand years we will be known as the most dysfunctional society that ever existed. This guy would not be in a classroom any of my children would be in; I call it like it is, he's mentally ill.

Plan9frompa: I suppose if his films were heterosexual porn he'd have been banished for life. But, since homosexuality is the new norm and is celebrated daily in the media, he's exonerated. And BTW, do you really want this pervert near your kids? Not me. Also, nice touch with his screen name "Collin"

Khahn: Ah yes a pervert in the schools, nice improvement!

I hereby declare: Anyone parroting the “gays are child predators!” trope shall be forced to spend five years at an all-gay boarding school, complete with clothing-optional comprehensive sex ed courses. Also, anyone caught commenting on news sites shall be immediately marooned on a desert island with no hope of returning to civilization. And anyone claiming to be an intelligent or civil commenter on such sites shall have to write a fifteen-hundred-page public dissertation explaining why, oh why, they thought posting there was a good idea in the first place.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Shawn Loftis • Collin O'Neil • pornography • gay porn • teachers • Nautilus Middle School • Florida Education Practices Commission • FEPC • wrongful termination