Teacher Quits After Fla. Porn Star Date

[The Straight Story]

Teacher Quits After Fla. Porn Star Date

MONESSEN, Pa. -- A high school art teacher who went on a date with a porn star after winning a satellite radio contest has resigned.

Jaison Biagini traveled to St. Petersburg, Fla., last month after winning the date on the Sirius satellite radio show "Bubba the Love Sponge."

The school board voted Tuesday to accept his resignation.

Biagini, who taught art for 14 years at Monessen High School, said he entered the contest because he wanted to win the free trip and visit the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg. He described the date as being "all fake and staged."

Biagini, who uses a wheelchair, was interviewed on the radio show after returning home, and told the Valley Independent in Monessen that he was ridiculed for his disability.

http://www.local6.com/news/13874455/detail.html

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. The Story Would Be Better With Pictures

eom

[JVS]

6. the story would be better if it were not so mindblowingly uninformaive.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I don't get it

Why did he quit?

[The Straight Story]

3. Not sure, guessing the school board was pressuring him (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Because he went out on a date??

[Posteritatis]

26. Most school boards have ridiculous personal-conduct requirements

They're terrified of parents being offended by one teacher or another doing something, so they basically pull some sort of "If you do something that could offend part of the community, we're tossing you."

I've heard of quite a few divorcees pressured out of teaching, for instance, and anyone who even gets transparently falsely accused of a crime is usually out of the career even if their name's been cleared.

Going on a date with - or even being somehow associated with - a porn actress would blacklist a teacher in most US or Canadian school districts, and they'd go well out of their way to find some irrelevancy to can the teacher over. It's asinine.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. BS

I am a teacher and that is not at all true. I don't know of any school district that would "blacklist" (whatever that means) a teacher for going out on a date. I also have worked with LOTS of divorced teachers and don't know any who lost their job because their marriage broke up. That is horse pucky.

[Posteritatis]

30. Might not be true where you are

But if you haven't heard of teachers getting pressured out of their positions for things like that all over the place then you haven't been paying attention. Most places, teachers are treated like shit, particularly if they're in a region rife with social conservatives, and taking flak because the PTA types might be offended is routine.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. It's rare

In districts represented by NEA or AFT, teachers have contracts that protect them from this kind of vindictive behavior. And very few districts in the US are not represented by NEA or AFT.

[The Straight Story]

11. Post 9 has more details (nt)

[Berry Cool]

4. Too bad the Salvador Dali museum wasn't still in Cleveland

He could've probably afforded to visit it without having to win a contest.

[Madspirit]

7. I wonder why he quit...I don't quite get it...n/t

[BlooInBloo]

10. Because the school was telling him not to go. He's saying "fuck you" to them....

... The true tragedy in all of this is that she's not all that hot - lol!

[Madspirit]

15. He Should Have Fought It...n/t

[BlooInBloo]

17. They're hicks. Only so much you can do with them.

[B Calm]

8. I don't think the man was married, so why in hell would he quit?

[struggle4progress]

9. Monessen teacher gone

By Stacy Wolford
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

~snip~ Jaison Biagini, a 14-year-teacher at the middle/high school, submitted his resignation for "retirement purposes" last week to school district officials. ~snip~

During a telephone interview following his return home from Florida, Biagini said he was "severely offended when I realized how I was being portrayed" by hosts of the show. He also expressed concern about his status as a teacher. ~snip~

According to the state Public School Code, a teacher's job can be terminated for such reasons as "immorality, incompetency, cruelty, persistent negligence, mental derangement, advocation of, or participating in un-American or subversive doctrines and persistent and willful violation of the school laws of the state."

Chelen said the board voted to accept the resignation last night - instead of waiting for next Tuesday's regular public meeting - so the district can place advertisements for Biagini's replacement. ~snip~

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_521191.html

[BlooInBloo]

12. lol! Was just about to post that link. MUCH more infofrmative.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I don't see this as a moral offense

His date was perfectly legal. He did it on his free time and did not expose his students to anything immoral.

How silly.

[Solon]

20. That School Code is really draconian...

Seriously, what the fuck would be subversion and Un-American activities? Isn't that unconstitutional? In fact, has any teacher ever been fired for stuff like that?

[Pushed To The Left]

24. I thought this was supposed to be a free country.

If a teacher wants to date a porn star on his own time, that should be his business! Who determines "immorality" or what is "un-American"? :mad: Of course, we live in a country where people can still be fired for bumperstickers. I hope the day will come where we are truly "the land of the free".

[yasmina27]

13. As a W. PA public school teacher, I say

ridiculous!

[BlooInBloo]

18. If you're a W. PA teacher, then you're perfectly familiar with the idoitic hick mentality there.

[yasmina27]

21. You're absolutely right

outside of metro Pittsburgh.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Why? Everyone involved was presumably a consenting adult. Big deal.

I don't know what the fuck is wrong with this country. I can understand wanting to go to the Dali Museum. I'll leave my thoughts on lowbrow radio like this another time.

[Poiuyt]

19. I'd love to see that museum

I'd go even if it meant I had to go on a date with a porn star

[Ezlivin]

22. It is fabulous, baby

I've been a few times (grew up in Tampa). They have guided tours that absolutely kick ass; you leave there with a minor in Art History.

[Berry Cool]

23. I saw it on a school field trip once during its Cleveland days. Very cool.

It had some other interesting cutting-edge art in it aside from Dali, too. It was the first place I ever saw a real holographic moving image. I'll never forget it. It was nothing but a woman squatting on her knees writing the words "whipped cream" in what seemed to be the air, using a can of Reddi-Wip. But it was like nothing I had ever seen before.

[Boojatta]

25. Expect a lot of lonely porn stars after the news gets around!

[Wetzelbill]

29. not as long as I'm available

well, with that line I lost any chance I had of winning the presidency.

Vote Wetzelbill/Kurovski '08

[BoneDaddy]

28. What a shame

that he be judged by that.