The haunted memories most people turn away from and try to forget sometimes makes their way back in their life changing it forever. The necessity of that situation is what matters. People are made to be challenged by trials and tribulations, and without them, the position of life will always be certain. Teachers are often perceived as inhuman, and that the things they have always done were positive and influential. Some teachers have a past that they have sought out to ignore but somehow it comes back up in their daily life, should this determine whether or not they should keep their job as an educator?

Dallas ISD teacher Ressa Woodward was fired from her job as a sixth grade teacher at the Young Women’s STEAM Academy at Balch Springs Middle School because of her promiscuous past.

Woodward was active in the porn scene over 16 years ago, yet her faulty past came into light and cost her her job. Young Women’s STEAM Academy is solely about women empowerment. Firing Woodward completely goes against the message being taught. Women always are limited on what’s ok and what is not ok when it comes to the things that have brought them down. Woodward had no control over her situation because she was forced into that lifestyle with an older man she lived with. She managed to overcome that and graduated college pursuing teaching to help younger women. Punishing Woodward for a situation that was over 16 years ago is rather biased and unfair. Her past does not deflate her ability to influence students and help them on the course of their life.

Woodward’s situation is similar to several other teachers. There have been several times teachers have faced consequences because of their past. Contrary to the belief that these teachers shouldn’t be involved in an environment full of children, they should be able to use that past to implement awareness to students of what not to do.

Rotten apples

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This all correlates to the term GRIT, where a person successfully jumped over obstacles they faced in the transitions of their life. A teacher’s GRIT is just like any other person’s GRIT, there is no ‘higher’ specific way to overcome your past. Most people can not control what they have to endure, but if they changed their life for the better, they should have the right to do what they have always wanted to do, even if its teaching.