# Parents trying to force out teacher who writes erotic romance on the side



## Guest (Apr 27, 2011)

_A series of racy romance novels by an author named Judy Mays are a little too racy for some parents in our area, especially now that they have discovered the woman known as Judy Mays is teaching their children.

Many parents might admire a high school English teacher who is also a published author, but some parents in Snyder County said what their children's teacher is writing about in her spare time might be a little too hot to handle.

Parents said Judy Buranich has been an English teacher at Midd West High School for nearly 25 years, but recently they found out she is a published author and writes under the pen name Judy Mays.

Her book is an erotic romance novel and some parents said they are not happy with the book's content._

http://www.wnep.com/wnep-sny-parents-buranich-english-teacher-writes-racy-novels-20110426,0,4057307.story

Sounds almost like the old days of book burning....


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

If its too racy for them, then they shouldn't read it.  AND so long as she's not sharing her book with her students, then who cares what she published under a pen name .... 

.... Finally, by making their displeasure public, all they're doing is increasing the potential for these students to go and seek out a racy book.


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## Rose Gordon (Mar 18, 2011)

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with the teacher writing erotica. It's not like she's passing out copies of her MS for her students to edit as part of the class (or at least I'd hope not). As long as she wasn't advertising it and trying to sell it to her students I see nothing wrong with it.

Besides, I'd be willing to bet some of those kids know more about the topic than that teacher.

(Not to mention, all those parents had to have had sex at least once in their lives...)


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Amen, sista!!


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Toward the end of the article a former student is quoted (my emphasis):


  "I was sort of shocked.Sitting in her class I had no idea. *She is a good teacher* but I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes," said former student Drew Hollenbach.

Makes one wonder what the problem is.


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## Rose Gordon (Mar 18, 2011)

T.L. Haddix said:


> Wonder how many of 'em have porn in their internet browser histories?


I almost wrote that same thing. But not just about the parents who have porn in their web history, I was going to say some of the other teachers, too. And yet, unless they're looking at underage girls, nobody gives a hang if someone looks at porn. But writing erotica...well, that's the biggest no-no ever!


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

If you read the article, it sounded like the author made it as difficult as a writer can to find out her real id.  From how I read the article, it sounded like some major research went on just to make an id of the teacher.  They went to the website, found the po box, then looked up youtube vids and compared that to the schools online photos of her.  It doesn't sound like a kid picked one of her books off his/her parent's book case and saw the author pic and went, "hey, this is my teacher".  It sounds like the teacher made the effort to seperate both of her works from each other.

I have heard cases of teachers being fired for painting nude pics or making and selling altered copies of their bums, but I think in those cases the teachers actually brought the paintings to work or used the school's copier for the copies.  If you bring it to school, it's a different case, imo


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

A teacher's private life should be just that.......these warriors already give too much of their lives to the children of idiot parents !!

P.S. Ms. Mays' works are Kindlized for your reading pleasure......At the risk of ruining my professional reputation, think I will try a new genre and read one !!


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

i feel compelled to oneclick her work, though i don't read the genre often


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

This kind of thing makes me so mad I can't even give a cogent reply. It's just total


Spoiler



BS


.


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

I saw this here last night but didn't have the time to click on it. Imagine my surprise to see the headline in my morning paper and see that it is a school district only about 15-20 miles away! The aticle in todays paper says that Waldenbooks has the books shelved as Romance, not Erotica, because that's how they come labeled by the publisher.  I haven't checked her books out yet, but it doesn't matter anyway. If her books were exploiting kids in some way it would be a problem but neither Romance nor Erotica is illegal!  It's embarrassing to have this non issue making national headlines. The Superintendent says he is "investigating." Considering this high school was most recently in the news after a 14 year old commited suicide allegedly due to anti-gay bullying - seems like they should have more important things to worry about.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

One of the authors here knows her.. Maybe they will chime in on if she's ok.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

From The Blog With The Name I Can't Type Here.


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## Katie Salidas (Mar 21, 2010)

NapCat said:


> A teacher's private life should be just that.......these warriors already give too much of their lives to the children of idiot parents !!
> 
> P.S. Ms. Mays' works are Kindlized for your reading pleasure......At the risk of ruining my professional reputation, think I will try a new genre and read one !!


I have to agree there. The teacher did all she could to keep things separate. She didn't bring it up at school. What right did anyone have, nosing in her private life? Erotica is a HOT genre. I wonder how many of those outraged parents are reading her stuff or have enjoyed her work. Porn and erotica are many an adults guilty pleasure. What they do behind closed doors should remain that way and same goes for this poor teacher.

I might just have to look her up on my kindle now too!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

I wonder whether any of these so-called concerned parents actually_ read_ any of the books in question. The first one in the clip stated that she didn't read "such stuff" -- well, what exactly is her criticism based on? The_ covers_?

And if "such stuff" is so evil, it makes you wonder how these people ever managed to have kids.


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## Val2 (Mar 9, 2011)

This is really pathetic! They should leave her alone - it's not like their kids don't know about the birds and bees, they probably know more than their parents!


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## EGranfors (Mar 18, 2011)

Next they'll be checking to see if the teachers are "living in sin. . . "  Can't stand it.


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## Cristian YoungMiller (Mar 3, 2011)

This is a very unfortunate situation. But as a person who has written a book called 'Everybody Masturbates' and another called 'Happiness Thru the Art of... Penis Enlargement' she had to expect that there would be repercussions if someone found out. 

When I decided to write my books I understood that there would be certain things that I will never be able to do again once they were published. I accept that I will never be able to become a teacher to anyone younger than 18. I accepted that I would never be able to be the face of a major company (I used to be in the marketing department at Disney). 

It's a sad fact, but it is a fact. Parents have the right to not expose the kids to certain material. And the fact that it is an issue means that the kids probably already knew about their teacher's work. It was probably a rumor going around the school for a long time. 

This is an unfortunate situation all of the way around.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little,
talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more

Maud:
Professor, her kind of woman doesn't belong on any committee.
Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but she advocates dirty books.

Harold:
Dirty books?!

Alma:
Chaucer

Ethel:
Rabelais

Eulalie:
_*Balzac! 
*_


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

One of the best scenes in that movie NapCat.. Thanks. and yes, I think these "parents" are sad little people to attack what a teacher does in her own time. As long as it's not Illegal.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

NapCat said:


> Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little,
> talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more
> 
> Maud:
> ...


LOL!! Love that movie and that song pops into my head whenever I hear this kind of nonsense gossip stuff.


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## Elizabeth Black (Apr 8, 2011)

Rose Gordon said:


> Honestly, I see nothing wrong with the teacher writing erotica. It's not like she's passing out copies of her MS for her students to edit as part of the class (or at least I'd hope not). As long as she wasn't advertising it and trying to sell it to her students I see nothing wrong with it.
> 
> Besides, I'd be willing to bet some of those kids know more about the topic than that teacher.


I wonder how the two old prudes found out about the books in the first place. This story is all over the erotic romance writers forums, and the writers are giving the teacher lots of support via email and such.



> (Not to mention, all those parents had to have had sex at least once in their lives...)


I don't know if my parents ever had sex at all since I'm adopted.


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## ashleygirardi (Apr 3, 2011)

Unless she signed some sort of employment agreement that governed appropriate behavior that specifically covers this situation, firing her would be wrongful termination.


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## Melonhead (Jan 1, 2010)

This sounds like a plot twist in The Accidental Bestseller.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Reading about this story online, I found several references to teachers who were fired for living with someone without being married. In the past ten years or so, and in the U.S. 

At dinner tonight I was telling DD's dad about this story, and he said that one of his mother's elementary school teachers (this would have been in the early 1940s) was fired _for getting married_, since teachers were expected to be chaste and focused entirely on their profession.

How times change.... or do they?


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

Susan in VA said:


> Reading about this story online, I found several references to teachers who were fired for living with someone without being married. In the past ten years or so, and in the U.S.


That reminded me that when I was teaching in the late 80's, I was living with my boyfriend and I kept it a deep, dark secret. I shared the closet with a teacher who was gay. It just seems so ridiculous. At my school now, tattoos are a dime a dozen, one teacher had her nose pierced, and an unmarried one had a baby for crying out loud. Nobody even blinks an eye at living together. We're not terribly conservative.  I love it. If you're a good teacher, the kids respect you, end of story.


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## kindlequeen (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm floored and saddened.  Heaven forbid we should have someone who's actually creative, motivated and disciplined enough to write a novel teaching our kids.  What do these people really think?  She's got an imagination!  They should be happy and make having some proven literary ability a prerequisite to teach in our schools!

Thank god we're a reasonable bunch here.... I don't know what I'd do if I opened this up to see ya'll siding with the parents!


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

TL I agree with you 100%.. THINKING rational people realize that teachers have a PRIVATE life outside of school.


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## Cristian YoungMiller (Mar 3, 2011)

I have to say that I'm a little surprised at everyone's response. Does no one here believe that since teachers have the 2nd largest influence over who a child will become, their public life should be held to some sort of standard? Yes a teacher should be allowed to have a private life as long as it remains private. But what if it doesn't? 

I am clearly not conservative at all. My book 'Happiness May Vary' is about a talking penis. But does no one else here believe that forcing a child to pray in a classroom is just as bad as exposing a conservative person's child to a person that produces the equivalent of porn in the conservative parent's mind? Am I the only liberal person here that thinks that that might be a little unfair to those who think differently than myself?


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

This kind of thing is one of the reasons why I don't want kids.  Because if I ended up like these people, I would want to shoot my brains out.  As the late, great George Carlin liked to say, parents are full of !%$.  They just are.  These kids aren't being exposed to jack squat.  This whole thing is just outrageous and just another example of how utterly stupid people collectively are.  It's really incredible how dumb people are.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

MichelleR said:


> From The Blog With The Name I Can't Type Here.


Excellent video.....Thanks for Sharing


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> I have to say that I'm a little surprised at everyone's response. Does no one here believe that since teachers have the 2nd largest influence over who a child will become, their public life should be held to some sort of standard? Yes a teacher should be allowed to have a private life as long as it remains private. But what if it doesn't?
> 
> I am clearly not conservative at all. My book 'Happiness May Vary' is about a talking penis. But does no one else here believe that forcing a child to pray in a classroom is just as bad as exposing a conservative person's child to a person that produces the equivalent of porn in the conservative parent's mind? Am I the only liberal person here that thinks that that might be a little unfair to those who think differently than myself?


As you say, _as long as it remains private_ there should be no problem. In this case it wasn't the teacher who put her personal life in plain view of the kids -- in fact, she took at least some measures to keep that part of her private life_ hidden_. 
My personal yardstick, as a parent, would be whether a teacher's private life influences what and how they teach. If a teacher has personal views, habits, or hobbies of which I strongly disapprove, I don't want them showing up in the classroom.


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

I don't think there even IS a lynch mob - the article I read in our local paper quoted the school superintendent as saying that he had received a couple of complaints. Unfortunately, a couple of loud people sometimes have more clout than lots and lots of people who aren't upset but keep quiet.


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## kaotickitten (Jan 9, 2011)

I almost wish the mods would close this thread. This is a hot button issue. For many keep putting Christians in parenthasies, yet say they don't mean to lump them together but yet you are. Just casue a parent is taking issue with this doesn't mean these parents are christian or consevitaive. Lots of people no matter their back ground feel the need to censor others lifes. "Non-Christians" feel the need to tell a Christian how they should live their life and what they should belive based on what they think the bible is saying. Yet they have never truely read the Bible.

Should this teacher lose her job over what she has written. Well that depends on what is in her contract. If their is a moral code in her contract, that states she must not do anything that may be demed questionable, than yes she should be fired. That would be a case of she knew what she was doing when she did what she did.

If there is not a moral code in her contract than no she shouldnt be fired. If the parents object at that point than it is up to them to get *their* children an education else where.


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## mom133d (aka Liz) (Nov 25, 2008)

kaotickitten said:


> "Non-Christians" feel the need to tell a Christian how they should live their life and what they should belive based on what they think the bible is saying. Yet they have never truely read the Bible.


Isn't that what Christians do to Non-Christians? But I don't want to make this a religious discussion...

As a parent, and my child will be entering kindergarten next year, my thoughts side with Susan and T. L., if her writing was kept private, then it is none of our business. And DH used to manage a bar, and several teachers got together there Friday nights to celebrate the end of the week. Just like normal folk. Now, if they were drinking & driving, or getting s**&^%ed then I'd have a problem with them teaching my child.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

mom133d said:


> Isn't that what Christians do to Non-Christians?


You nailed it, sister.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

ok.. I got 2 of Ms. Mays books to see what was so objectionable...

Turns out? They are much more romance than erotica. Yes there are a couple of sex scenes but even those don't get ... all out erotic.. I'd actually like to read more books based on the world told about in the story of Mira. it was a good story. Yes, there was sex between 2 consenting adults within the first hours of knowing each other, but they do end up married.

All in all I have read MUCH steamier stories, and these were well-written with plots beyond "sick tab a into slot b and twist"


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

BTackitt said:


> ok.. I got 2 of Ms. Mays books to see what was so objectionable...
> 
> Turns out? They are much more romance than erotica. Yes there are a couple of sex scenes but even those don't get ... all out erotic.. I'd actually like to read more books based on the world told about in the story of Mira. it was a good story. Yes, there was sex between 2 consenting adults within the first hours of knowing each other, but they do end up married.
> 
> All in all I have read MUCH steamier stories, and these were well-written with plots beyond "sick tab a into slot b and twist"


I'm guessing, publicity wise, this whole brouhaha will be a good thing for her. . . . . .


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## dpinmd (Dec 30, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I'm guessing, publicity wise, this whole brouhaha will be a good thing for her. . . . . .


I hope so! I just bought one of her novels as a show of support. My TBR list is feeling pretty overwhelming these days, so I don't know when I'll actually read it, but I wanted to buy it now so that anyone analyzing her sales numbers would include my purchase in the "bump" she (hopefully) gets as a result of these closed-minded parents' actions.


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## Cristian YoungMiller (Mar 3, 2011)

T.L. Haddix said:


> Does that make sense, Cristian?


Sure it makes sense. And don't get me wrong, I am considered a very liberal, non-Christian... in spite of my name.  But, my brother did his best to shelter his kids from anything sexual... including my books. I think he is making a mistake by being so sheltering, but I understand why he's doing it and I can't argue against his decision on how to raise responsible members of society.

That is what feeds my opinion.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Just wait awhile.  One of the complaining parents will probably give up his/her own job soon when an affair is revealed...


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I bought one of Judy's books just to see and ended up having to talk to customer service. I walked away with the impression that overall this has not been bad for her royalties.  And the book? It was a short novella and it was rather sweet, really. Yes, straight-up sex, but romantic, definitely advancing the plot as opposed to just "Hey! Here's some random people having sex!" and I was left wanting to know more about what happened and about the world she created. This was "The Dryads Tower."


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