Celebrities basically live by a golden rule: Do whatever the hell you want; just make sure no one films you doing it. (Lest you end up like Miley Cyrus smoking salvia on TMZ.) But in this day and age, we all have to watch out for the amateur paparazzi.
Natalie Santagata, a fifth-grade teacher in Charlotte County, has been fired after someone mysteriously sent the school district and various parents numerous private videos and pictures of the teacher engaging in sex acts and apparently smoking marijuana.
Unlike the local case of Shawn Loftis, the substitute teacher fired for his gay porn career, Santagata's videos don't appear to have been made for public consumption. However, the teacher apparently knew she was being filmed.
According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the school district was sent an envelope with four pictures and a flash drive containing five videos. The footage showed Santagata "performing graphic sex acts" and smoking what seems to be marijuana.
The package appears to have been the work of someone with an ax to grind with Santagata.
"Clearly the anonymous sender or senders are motivated to cause great personal and professional harm to Natalie Santagata," Steve Cummings, the school district security supervisor, wrote in a report.
The anonymous vigilante didn't stop with just school district officials. He/she also mailed similar packages to parents, sent the material through Facebook, and posted some of the videos online (which are no longer available).
While there's certainly no rule against teachers having sex on their own time, and Santagata passed her most recent drug test, the district decided to can her anyway for personal misconduct that "demonstrably impacted [her] effectiveness as a classroom teacher in our district."
Santagata did not comment publicly, but the Herald-Tribune reports she recognized the handwriting on the letter. Spooky.
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