English teacher writes erotica, parents furious

Pennsylvania High School English teacher, Judy Buranich, has been teaching for 25 years in Snyder County. She is also a published author, writing under the pen name Judy Mays. And as someone who is teaching high school kids the ins and outs of the written word, that’s not a bad side job to have. But Judy’s second job of writing has caught the attention of some of the parents, and they are furious. And it’s because Judy doesn’t just write novels…

She writes erotic romance novels.

On Judy May’s website, Judy claims she’s disguised by day as “a mild-mannered tenth grade English teacher in a small public high school” and by night, “fights a never ending battle for Hot Hunks, Hip Heroines, and Salacious Sensuality”. Her subjects are usually along the fantasy route – creating trysts between aliens, werewolves, and vampires. And her site was discovered by Wendy Apple, the parent of a 10th grade student who is in Judy Buranich’s class.

“Now my son knows so how is he thinking when he’s sitting in her class knowing what she does on the side,” Apple said.

And Apple isn’t the only one who’s up in arms about this teacher’s side job. Parent Deanna Stepp also has a problem with the fact that a teacher who is in charge of a classroom of minors is writing material that is clearly adult. “I think she needs to make a decision as to what she wants to do. Either be a school teacher or author,” Stepp said.

“I was shocked. If you are a teacher you shouldn’t be doing that,” said former student Shanette Apple.

“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.

What do I think? I’m wondering if the parents of any of these students are having sex. If they are, what kind of role model are they? I mean, they need to make a decision – do they want to be sexual, or do they want to be parents? Because obviously you cannot be both.

Please note the sarcasm.

This kind of stuff pisses me off. So you’re going to tell me that teachers are not allowed to have lives outside of the classroom? Perhaps they should just keep a sleeping bag rolled up by their desk so that there’s no need to ever leave the school once the kids go home. I mean, that’s the only way to really ensure that they don’t do something like go on vacation and have a drink, gripe about their job via an anonymous blog, or this, holding a second profession of writing erotica – all under a pen name without ever letting it enter the classroom.

It does seem like only a small group of people have found offense with Judy’s side job as an erotica novelist. Comments poured in from supporters, even some from former students who praised Judy for her years as their teacher. And a Facebook support page called “Support Judy Mays” has almost 10,000 fans that are rallying in support for this moonlight novelist.  But among the support and rallying, one parent asked this:

“…instead of it being a teacher say it was a principal then would you paint a different picture of all this? YES you all would and don’t tell yourselves you wouldn’t. When you’re a known for your job as a teacher there are just some things that are not appropriate to be involved in and this is one of those things.” StacySmith

Where does the line get drawn between someone’s personal life and their career? Should someone who works closely with children ensure their private life is squeaky clean?