Kiwi teacher fighting for career after posing naked for Penthouse

WELLINGTON - A former teacher who appeared naked on Australian Penthouse’s website is now fighting for her career.

Rachel Whitwell, fiancee of Kiwi porn king and Boobs on Bikes organiser Steve Crow, appeared before the New Zealand Teachers Council, reports the New Zealand Herald.

She met the council just before Christmas - more than a year since she hit headlines in 2009 when the council said it would investigate if her posing naked on Australian Penthouse’s website had brought the teaching profession into disrepute.

Crow attended the hearing and said this week a representative from Otara’s Yendarra School, where Whitwell once worked, was a witness for the council and told it that builders put up the pictures on the school’s toilet walls, which “caused distress”. But Crow argues the dates don’t stack up.

Whitwell said she relished the chance to finally have her say - “to defend my actions”.

She spent four years studying at Victoria University for her degree and wants to fight for her career.

“I told them it wasn’t illegal. It just comes down to a few individuals making a moral judgment,” she said.

She reasoned she was not teaching at the time of the photoshoot and had left Yendarra School about a year earlier to spend time with her daughter.

Whitwell said council members asked lots of “hypothetical questions”, like what if future students saw the images and lost respect for her - and how would she deal with that?

“I said I would be calling on the parents of those children and asking, ‘Why are your children looking at R18 material’?” she said.

Whitwell added that she did not worry about others’ opinions. She would just focus on being a good teacher. She said she had received support from the public, held her head high and had no regrets. (ANI)