CNN doesn't have a problem with Shawn Loftis's big, gay porn career. Should Miami-Dade County Public Schools?
Using the nom de porn Collin O'Neal, he won awards for virtuoso performances in hard-core films such as Mo' Bubble Butt, Humping Iron, and Desperate Husbands.
In 2005, Miami Beach resident Loftis started Collin O'Neal Productions. His film series, "World of Men," was based on a unique concept: He'd travel to exotic -- but not necessarily sexy -- locales such as Lebanon and Serbia.
Between scenes of the Loftis cavorting with local hunks, he'd give viewers tours of famous monuments and settings, complete with historical context.
Yes, Loftis -- who studied international relations with a focus on the Middle East at Florida International University and earned a master's in public administration from the University of Miami -- has never been just about the porn. He has achieved some national notoriety, in fact, for his dedicated "citizen reporting" on CNN's website. The news giant has featured his videos and, he says, is well aware of his day job: "They don't mind at all."
But in spring 2010, Loftis decided to dump porn to pursue his real passion: teaching. That March, he sold "World of Men" to a Canadian company, he says. And in April, he began substitute teaching in local public schools. He worked at Miami Beach High -- where "they just loved me to death," he says -- Nautilus Middle, Edison Middle, and Fienberg-Fisher K-8.
This past January, Loftis was informed he had been suspended. Another employee had told Nautilus principal Allyn Bernstein, she wrote, that Loftis "had his own personal gay website." When administrators Googled his "industry name," they found "sexually explicit pictures" of -- if our own search is any indication -- the math sub engaging in nude acrobatics with buff, furry men.
The school district cited Rule 6Gx13-4A-1.21, which demands -- mighty subjectively -- that school faculty "conduct themselves, both in their employment and in the community, in a manner that will reflect credit upon themselves and the school system."
In April, despite his protests that smut was in his past, the Florida Department of Education revoked Loftis's teaching certification.
He points out that his porn career was perfectly legal. He suspects he would have been treated differently if he had appeared in straight films. "She exposed herself as a big old homophobe," Loftis says of Bernstein, who didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.
Loftis went to the American Civil Liberties Union with his complaint, but a representative there failed to find a sympathetic lawyer. "Almost everyone has things in the their past that could be embarrassing and that should bar someone from making a living," the volunteer -- who gave his name only as Carlos -- pontificated before concluding: "Your case would be stronger if your job did not involve supervising children."
So our hero has returned to the world he once left. Last week, he was in Cuba, filming a sex scene involving twin brothers. He bragged on Twitter: "They actually like touching and having sex with each other :)"
We've embedded a terse memo from Bernstein to Loftis, summoning him to the principal's office to face his punishment.
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