A Cautionary Tale

Teacher quits after students learn
she was porn star Rikki Andersin

Decisions, decisions. Should you star in that porno film, or not?

Turns out, you can't escape your past - especially if you are a teacher and your past involves X-rated films.

High school science teacher and mother of four, Tera Myers, resigned her job teaching science at a Missouri school on Monday after a student discovered that she had starred in pornographic films under the name Rikki Andersin two decades ago.


This is the second go 'round for Myers who lost a similar job as a science teacher and volleyball coach at Reidland High School in Paducah, Kentucky under the name Tericka Dye, in 2006. Teachers in Paducah stood by Myers (then Dye) when she was suspended with pay for the 2005-2006 school year and her contract was not renewed because the superintendent feared her presence would cause a distraction in the classroom.

After that incident, Myers said making the films was the worst decision of her life, Heartland News reports.

"I'm a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who's made a lot of bad decisions in life," she said. "Anybody who's been in my classroom could tell you how much I love teaching and how much I love these students, and that should be what matters more than anything in my past."

This from CBS:

Dr. Don Senti, interim superintendent of the Parkway School District in suburban St. Louis, confirms Tera [Myers] asked to be placed on administrative leave for the remainder of the school year. A statement from the Parkway School District says [Myers'] request came after a student asked her about her past, referring to the one or more pornographic movies [Myers] admitted to making while living in California in the mid-1990s.

The Parkway district has agreed to accept [Myers'] request to be placed on leave "out of respect for her privacy and that of her family." It also states [Myers] passed standard background and reference checks prior to being employed in August 2007.

Myers' attorney announced in early 2007 that Myers (under the name Dye) had withdrawn an appeal of a ruling on a lawsuit she filed against the McCracken County School System and was leaving Kentucky. What she did was not illegal, so it didn't show up on a background check.

Myers will be paid through the end of the school year, but not be returning in the fall.

This from Dr Phil:

Across the country, teachers are being harassed by students playing pranks. Sometimes, these jokes result in the teachers losing their jobs. But, could the mischief your kids get into end up costing you thousands of dollars?

Ruined by Her Past?

Tericka, a high school teacher, lived in fear that her scandalous past would catch up with her. When news of her indiscretions spread through town, her dreams were shattered. Michael, a fellow teacher, says he wouldn't want his kids in a classroom with her.

What's her shocking secret and how can she move forward?

"I have been a good teacher, but one day, everything just blew up in my face," says Tericka. "Doing pornographic material has ruined my teaching career and my life." She appeared in her first porno film 11 years ago at age 22. "I was homeless. I was a mother of two. I was broke and wound up meeting some strippers who introduced me to stripping. I was making a lot of irrational decisions, porn only being the worst," she admits.

Although she became a teacher and tried to put her past behind her, the pornographic videos eventually surfaced. "A student had it in possession and was showing it to other students," she says. "I was called into my principal’s office, and he said he had to call the school board. Within a matter of minutes, they had suspended me and asked me to leave the grounds. Everything I had worked for was gone." Tericka was suspended with pay, and the school did not renew her contract.

Tericka says that her skills as a teacher have been overlooked. "It doesn’t seem to matter to the schools that I have had perfect reviews as a teacher. They only seem to care that I’m an ex-porn star," she says.

Tericka says she misses being in the classroom and teaching the kids. "I just don’t understand how you can take a teacher who has put so much into it, and suspend them for something that is 11 years in the past," she says. "I did live with the fear that somehow, someday, it would catch up with me. I just didn’t know that it would ruin me."