i think it's a really unfortunate situation for the teacher, especially teaching classes of younger children, who we really can't expect to behave sensibly and maturely. even if, like some of you have suggested, the parents and teachers did a better job raising the children and making them more sensitive to issues like this, there will always be some kids who carry on causing trouble. that's assuming that all of the parents are even prepared to look past things like this, some people are stuck in their ways and will not change, and so the indoctrinated kids often grow up the same. (hey religion, how ya' doing?)
i have no doubt that she's a changed woman and genuinely regrets the decisions she has made in the past, like most people do, and in an ideal world she wouldn't have to lose her job over this. taking just the issue out of this context, i wouldn't judge her on what she has done in the past, i'd rather base my opinions on her around how she behaves from then on (in the simplest terms and obviously generalising to keep things relatively succinct). and so from an employment standpoint, they obviously hired her because she was qualified and presumably kept her for as long as they did because she was good at her job.
unfortunately that's all sort of irrelevant in this particular case; i mean yes, we can talk about this as an actual issue and debate the 'correct' moral and ethical way to proceed, but we're mature, forward thinking adults (well, at least most of us are). the reality of the situation is that children aren't mature, they're not going to think of how this impacts on the teacher's life and they definitely aren't going to be thinking anything along the lines we're discussing now- and that's the problem, she has lost the respect of the children she teaches, so how can she carry on being an effective teacher? you can mask this however you like, it's not an issue of sexism or anything else; i'd expect the exact same reaction if the teacher was a man. you can't teach effectively if the children don't respect you, teacher's with no such history can still have trouble controlling certain classrooms of kids because children are just like that, we'd be fooling ourselves to think otherwise and expect any more from them on issues like this. if the children don't respect the teacher's authority and aren't prepared to listen/learn, then the whole point of the lesson is compromised. and this won't just be a one off, as long as the videos are available online it'll keep happening as long as she's at the school. and so you can understand, from the view of the school's board and the judges who ruled against her, she can no longer work effectively in her position.
it's sad because there's sorta nothing she can do about it now; maybe they should have just let her keep her job and see how long she actually stayed before it got out of hand and she ended up quitting anyway? the real problem here is publicising the whole thing so she has no chance of getting a job teaching anywhere else.
i don't expect everyone to agree with me, but i'm just being honest and realistic. it'd be nice if children behaved like adults, but they don't. however well they've been brought up, they're still children- it's not difficult to understand, just try and accept it for what it is.
