is it wrong for a teacher to also write racy romance novels?

Scuba Man was telling me about this story yesterday and I am amazed it is an issue.  Ms. B, a 10th grade English teacher, is also a successful romance author under a pen name.  Oh yeah, and the novels are described as “racy.”

Judy Mays is the pen name of this wonderful teacher.

A local news program reported on this, interviewing 2 parents, and 1 student who think this is wrong.  The one parent is afraid of how the teacher may be “looking” at her son, because, as we all know, people who write racy novels are paedophiles.  The student they interviewed didn’t even go to the school where Ms. B has taught for 25 years.  She was the daughter-in-law of one of the outraged parents!  No bias there.  They also interview one of her former students who commented he was sort of shocked to find out, that she was a good teacher.

Talk about a modern-day witch hunt!  Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think there is a clause in a teacher’s contract that says they can’t write about sex.  I also haven’t been able to find anything on the Internet about romance novel authors being paedophiles.  Maybe I’m not looking hard enough.

These parents should be praising this teacher.  She is passionate about the subject she teaches.  If she were writing any other genre, would they still be attacking her?  How do these women even know what is in the novels? If they are so shocked by them, why are they reading them?

Maybe I’m the one is the wrong here because I don’t read romance novels.  I don’t know they contain horrible scenes of orgies with children, or have no plot line, or have no redeeming qualities, or that the writing is poor, or this horrible thing, or that horrible thing.

There have been a lot of comments left on this “news” story, many by Ms. B’s former and current students.  They all have praise for her, say what an awesome teacher she is, how she inspired them, and showing her their support.

The students all say she never brought the subject up of her being an author, or mentioned any of the books, or ever made any inappropriate comments, or gave any inappropriate looks to students.  Most students know she writes these type of books and just don’t care.

Commentators have also slammed the news station for even reporting the story, as it’s just not a news story.  It’s some kind of vendetta.

Yes, there have been several comments against Ms. B, and against her supporters.  These were all written by one person, the sister of the woman who started the hullabaloo.

I am all for the news reporter to start poking around in this little groups private lives like they poked around in this teacher’s private life.  If this teacher was the horrible pedophile this little group believes her to be, she most certainly wouldn’t be writing under a pen name that could be even remotely connected to her.

There wouldn’t be this story about how a 10th grade English teacher is also a successful publish romance author.  There would be stories about how she seduced her students, made her books required reading, or even read from them in class!

If these parents do not want their children exposed to the fact that this teacher writes racy romance novels, then it’s their job, AS THE PARENT, to not let their child read those novels.  It’s their job to not publicise her private life.  It is not the job of the teacher to not write the novels.

Come on people, it’s called a private life for a reason!  You should be celebrating this woman, not defaming her.  Your 15 minutes of fame are up, but her fame will last a long time.

I’m sure Judy Mays book sales are up.  Free publicity, don’t you know…