PARENTS who were shown Tina’s pictures were divided as to whether a teacher should have posed for such revealing pictures.

Homemaker Audra Chow, 36, said the pictures showed a confident person who was comfortable with her body but added it turned her off knowing she was an educator.

The mother of three kids, two of whom are in primary school, said: “Being a teacher is a chosen profession. You are a role model for all students, whether you are inside or outside school.

“Your character is reflected through your actions.

“I personally feel that any teacher should not be doing such a thing.”

She said she would have complained to MOE if the teacher continued posing like that.

Madam Chow added: “Private life or not, those in some professions, like teachers, cannot limit themselves to just their work environment.”

A secondary school teacher, 32, who did not want to be named, said a teacher should not pose for such shots nor should she post them.

The mother of a 4-year-old child said: “Being in the teaching profession, the image of a teacher as a professional is important in nurturing children.

“She is responsible for imparting sound ethics and moral values, apart from her teaching responsibilities.”

Another secondary school teacher, who also declined to be named, said: “I suppose as a teacher, we are expected to uphold certain values and posing for such pictures does insinuate more loose values.”

On the argument that teachers should be allowed to do their own thing privately, outside school, she said: “When you become a teacher, you are a teacher 24/7. There is really no such thing as private.

“Your students are everywhere – in your estate, at the shopping centres, at the cinema, and online.

“Posing in skimpy outfits would open a whole Pandora’s box of controversy.”

Dr Carol Balhetchet, director of youth services at the Singapore Children’s Society, said she would not even have to look at Tina’s pictures to know a teacher should not be posing in a bikini.

The psychologist-counsellor of 18 years: “If you are professionally involved with a school, there is an etiquette you have to follow because you have younger children who look up to you as a role model and as an example of how they are supposed to behave socially.

“So, you have to watch how you behave in public.”

She said the 7- to 12-year-old age group was the most impressionable as they absorbed information easily and learnt their social graces from the people they spent most of their time with – which is either at home or in school.

Training manager Sebastian Anthony, 45, a father of three, with two in primary school, said he thought Tina looked great.

He did not mind that she was a teacher or if she was teaching his child, provided she behaved according to decorum set for the school environment.

He said: “I am sure she does not dress like that to school, so what she does on her own private time is strictly her own business.

“If I had found this website, I would not tell the school or teachers known to her as this is her private business.

“The pictures are just ‘naughty’ in nature and not pornographic which would be a no-no for me.”

Trouble

Operations manager John Lim, 49, who has a daughter in Primary 5, agreed that what she did outside school was her own business, as long as it’s not anything illegal.

“Why judge a person from what she looks like? She might have a good rapport with her students and might be a good teacher,” he said.

But administration and support manager Gilbert Wong, 52, who has a son in Primary 4, felt Tina was putting herself in a compromising position, especially if her students found those pictures.

He said: “Her students might create trouble for her by writing things on the toilet doors or on the bus.

“If she has a beautiful body, she should not show it this way.

“There are other ways to do it like taking part in a beauty pageant. Her students might even be supportive.

“Now they might imagine her in a bikini when she is teaching them.”

“She is responsible for imparting... moral values, apart from her teaching responsibilities.”

– The mother of a 4-year-old child

This article was first published in The New Paper on 31 Oct 2008.