Hey miss, I can see your butt

I had visions of schoolboys saying that to Lynne Tziolas, when I read of her sacking from her job as a teacher for appearing nude in pictures in Cleo magazine. However, I guess as a Grade 1 teacher, maybe they are a bit too young for that sort of thing … had they been high school boys there is no doubt her nude pictures would have made their way all over her school (perhaps used as book coverings by some more enterprising students?).

Here’s the picture that got her the bullet from Narraweena Primary School in the northern beaches area of Sydney. (and you can’t even see her butt anyway!)

Extremely tame in my opinion. The only thing that causes me any offence is the feral tattoos ( have I mentioned before I hate tattoos … why do people choose to disfigure themselves in this way?)

The article which has caused the furore is this month’s Cleo. Titled “Buck naked couples talk about their sex lives” the article interviews ten couples about “what they get up to between the sheets”.It also includes a full-page picture of each couple, naked and holding each other.

Lynne and Antonios’s article asks them about how many times they have sex a week, their favourite body part and the most risque sexual thing they’ve done. Now, not having read the article, I’ve got no idea what they said in answer to these questions. On the assumption they didn’t confess to their sex life including things such as having a threesome with a goat on the teacher’s desk in the classroom, there’s no real harm in that. Sure, too much information, but nothing extraordinary!

But, according to the NSW Department of Education:

“Concerns have been raised by community members in relation to this article. I have concerns that this will seriously impact on your continued employment at Narraweena Public School,”

Not sure how widespread this community concern was. Lynne Tziolas says:

“The first thing I knew was on Friday morning when a parent complained, and come Friday afternoon I was told not come back to the school”

The school and department aren’t saying anything on the subject, although they did refer to complaints from several parents. On the other hand, she seems to have plenty of support from parents of the kids she teaches.

I must admit to having mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, the photo published is completely harmless and inoffensive, and whatever they said about their sex life (presumably) is nothing outrageous. On the other, she showed poor judgement in doing what she did …. there are things we don’t need kids or parents to know about their teachers, and she should have known that something like this was bound to cause someone somewhere some offence. So, bad decision on her part. Does it warrant a sacking? I’d have thought it could have been handled with a good stern talking to by school management indicating their disapproval of her actions, and a warning not to do it again. I’d put her “crime” in the area of a mistake due to bad judgement …. its not like criminality, dishonesty or incompetence are issues in this case (although in my experience, there’s usually more than the particular precipitating incident involved when someone gets sacked suddenly – ie I’d suspect the principal/department had some other issues with her and the Cleo stuff is just the excuse, or final straw).

The other thing I have mixed thoughts about is that she’s a temporary employee, and has been put on 4 weeks suspension on full pay (why do people always get suspended on full pay?… when I had to suspend people from their jobs when I was a public servant I always made it without pay – its not a freaking holiday for them, its telling them they’re in deep shit and we plan to sack them asap), which is somewhat short of sacked. Also as a temp, she would know her employment is somewhat subject to the school’s continued need for her services, so pissing them off was not a good employment choice. As a temp, sudden changes in your employment should be something you expect fairly regularly, and should be no big deal. Tough, but them’s the breaks in temporary work.

I also don’t think some of the comments by Mrs Tziolas and her husband are particularly helpful to her case to be reinstated. Saying she would gladly strip and pose again is sort of just flaunting it, rubbing the department’s nose in it. Guaranteed way to get on their shit list!

Mrs Tziolas said she was stunned by the response of her school to the article, and said it may end her career in public schools. Yep, especially if you go on about it in the media.

Mr Tziolas – also a teacher – is concerned the furore may have also affected his chances at getting a job with the NSW public system. He said he had applied for work at Narraweena, a primary school, as well, but doubted he would now get a position. “I’d imagine that my name is one that won’t be called, even though I’m on the list,” Mr Tziolas, 45, said. Yep, start looking for another job I’d advise … the only list you’re on at the department is their “never to be hired” one, aka shit list.

My advice if they want to be teachers is: lay low for a while, show some remorse for your errors in judgement (even if you don’t agree you made them), promise not to do it again.