NEW YORK – A 3-year-old topless selfie cost New York teacher Lauren Miranda her job.
The 25-year-old had privately sent the photo to her then-romantic partner back in 2016, WPIX reports. Both of them were teachers within the South Country School District in Bellport, Long Island.
In January, a student somehow got his hands on that picture. Miranda was put on home assignment for three months. She was told last week she was fired.
"That picture was never posted," said Miranda. "How it got out is the million dollar question."
The $3 million question to be exact. Attorney John Ray has filed a notice of claim asking for Miranda to be reinstated or for the school district to pay up. Miranda says she is being discriminated against for being a woman.
"If a male teacher's nipples were displayed, there would be no punishment," she said.
She said she first spoke to the principal.
"He said 'how can I put you in front of a classroom where boys would be able to pull out their phone and look at this image of you?""
At a press conference Miranda said the principal told her she couldn't work at South Country when students could just pulled out their phones and look at "this image of you."
District officials held a meeting, where Miranda was brought in and questioned about the photograph by the entire board of education.
"They displayed in full color, with all the men in the room sitting there, her photograph and said- 'ha! This is the picture,'" said Ray.
Miranda became eligible for tenure this year and job performance reviews presented by the lawyer show she was always commended for doing a great job, but now Miranda says her career is over.
"I loved my job, I never woke up in the morning and didn't want to go. I loved my students, my faculty. I really thought this is where I was going to spend the next thirty years of my life," said Miranda.
