Cav's Place

There have been a lot of cases here lately where people have lost their jobs over leaked information about things that either had nothing to do with their work or at least nothing to do with their performance. Of course this is happening everywhere, but since I seem to have started a series of posts based on news from Romania I might as well keep it going. I have a lot of comments running through my mind about these issues anyway…

The major recent story of this kind has been that of three nurses who took pictures of themselves next to an unconscious patient, trying to look sexy. They weren’t naked or anything of that kind, they weren’t using the patient in any way, they were just trying to strike certain poses while being around that patient’s bed.
As expected, the media blew it all out of proportion, taking it as proof of the low interest those in the field of medicine have for their duties around here, plus lashing out at them because of the supposed immorality of their actions. That resulted in an investigation being started by the hospital this took place in, an investigation which was concluded very quickly because complaints registered more than six months after the fact are null and void and this happened about one year ago. Still, though neither law nor internal regulations allowed them to take any action against those nurses, they used other means to pressure them into resigning.
The explanations revolved entirely around the morality of their action and how they were making fun of that poor “dying” patient. I looked at what pictures were published and I didn’t see them do anything to or with the patient, they were simply posing for the camera, usually with their backs towards the patient’s eyes. Not that he could see anything anyway since he was out cold! According to them, he had just survived a very complicated open heart surgery and the prognosis was good (so he wasn’t dying, at least not anymore) and that was just why they were doing what they did, they thought it’d be fun to celebrate it in some way… And besides, I think you need to find ways to have a bit of fun on the job when said job involves pain, suffering and death on a daily basis!
Honestly, what man would mind three pretty young women posing rather sexily around him? Ok, maybe in that particular case it’s a good thing he was out cold, because his heart had been through a lot and arousal wouldn’t have been recommended, but still… And either way, shouldn’t they have tried to track down the patient and simply ask whether he is bothered by this or not? Or is this another case of “we know what you’re feeling better than you do”?
We have doctors who keep on practicing without any problems after forgetting various items inside their patients, or others who perform the wrong operation, or on the wrong patient. There are others who “simply” misdiagnose, prescribe the wrong treatment or hardly pay any attention to a patient unless he or she offers them enough as a “gift”. Many of those don’t have any problems, or get away with just a slap on the wrist or at most 10% taken off their pay for a couple of months, but these girls had to resign over a few pictures that didn’t hurt anybody! If they’re worried about morality, how about the morality of that?

Moving on, there have been several cases of teachers who were fired or pressured into resigning after certain pictures or movies were leaked to the media or posted on-line. You had everything from a couple of pictures of the person trying to look sexy while still dressed to porn movies, and I’m not talking only about home movies. Honestly, what does that have to do with their teaching skills? Especially since these things tend to be leaked a long time after the fact, so even if you want to think that doing such things makes the person change, it’s not like they happened then!
There have been a few cases of young female teachers who had a few pictures that could potentially be considered somewhat sexy posted on their accounts on various sites. That made a lot of people get on their case and pressure them because supposedly they’re bad examples for their students. Firstly, that has to do with their personal life, not their abilities as a teacher. Secondly, how exactly is that a bad example? They’re doing the same thing many of their students are doing so, if anything, you can say they show that they have some common views and therefore can become closer and communicate easier. Is that a bad thing? Do teachers need to stay these distant bogey men or evil witches in order to be “moral”?
There has also been a case recently, and others in the past, where a private sex video featuring a teacher has been leaked. I didn’t look for this recent one, but I heard that it features said teacher having oral sex in her own bed with a man, presumably her boyfriend at the time. It would appear that he leaked the recording after the relationship ended. Can anybody please tell me why does this make said teacher immoral? Does everyone assume that teachers are asexual or what? Isn’t it known that sometimes, preferably very frequently, they also have sex? So what if she allowed herself to be filmed? I for one would be trying to track down the guy and request an explanation for making the video public! Maybe she did do something very rotten to him and he saw it as just revenge, which is something that should be judged separately but still has nothing to do with her skills as a teacher, but maybe he’s just an asshole and he should be the one prosecuted, not her. I think she’s embarrassed enough by it as it is!
Moving on to the more serious matters, there have been cases of teachers and other public workers who were proven to also be prostitutes. When it comes to prostitution I might have to grudgingly agree that the penalties were somewhat justified. Not because I see prostitution as being immoral, but because for some stupid reason (“morals” again) it’s still illegal, which means they are engaging in illegal activities while being paid from public funds. Not that you wouldn’t have to fire pretty much every politician if that rule would apply to all, but still… Thing is that people don’t seem to care whether they still are prostitutes or just were at some point in the past. Why should you still pay the price if you have seen the error of your ways and changed? What incentive do you have to change your ways if you know you’ll pay the price either way?
Another issue is starring in porn movies, the (more or less) professional kind. One specific case I can think of right now is that of a teacher’s aid who was recently revealed to have starred in a porn movie five years ago. At the time she was married to a fanatic member of a cult who convinced her to join as well and that’s how she ended up in the movie. It happened five years ago people! Since then she left that man, the cult and the porn business, moved, rebuilt her life, remarried and is currently pregnant. Not to mention that being a porn actor isn’t illegal! Yet she was pressured into resigning too… Excuse me, but what’s the problem? I guess whether or not they had any STDs can be a factor, because if they didn’t you can safely say they’re a good example because they can teach about practicing safe sex, and that’s much needed in today’s world even though so many refuse to see it.
As for male teachers, the similar cases there tend to be quite few, most being truly serious and dealing with sexual harassment or other similar things. Yet, strangely, those tend to be allowed to continue teaching! Still, there has been one recently, namely an elderly teacher, close to retirement, who was filmed watching porn on a school computer during a break. The school’s principal says he’s appalled by this and can’t figure out how can a distinguished teacher with over 40 years of work behind him do “something like that”, especially when he’s so close to retirement. What did he do? He was just watching some porn! It wasn’t during class, so what’s the problem?
In most of these cases there’s one thing that stands out by its absence: They hardly ever mention the person’s skills in relation to their job! And in the few cases where they do, it’s as a side note. I do remember the news reports mentioning that there have been frequent complaints from students about one of the “porn star teachers”. Really? Then why didn’t you do something about it before? This makes it sound like “oh, we know she’s a bad teacher, we never really cared about that, what she does when she’s not teaching is far more important”, doesn’t it?

Such cases are quite frequent and I find it disgusting! I’m not even convinced by the Max Mosley sex scandal, even though that has wider implications, because it’s still a matter of what he does in his personal life and as long as it doesn’t affect his work I don’t see why people should care what gets him off.
I for one am only interested in the personal life of a person that’s not my friend when it noticeably affects their work and I’m interested in said work, and even then it’s usually just to find an explanation for certain things. The two are separate and I can easily admire the work of a person I dislike or dislike the work of a person I admire. Why can’t others do the same? Do we have too many people who are so good at what they do that we need to look for new ways to make selections? Or is it that so many can’t accept that others are better at something and need to look for ways to bring them down to their level? No need to answer that…