Ex-Porn Star Hangs Up Her 'Hat' as School Aide
By ATTIYAH BUFORD
Updated 2:52 PM PDT, Tue, Jan 20, 2009
The former porn star known as Crystal Gunns, who turned XXX to ABC has hung up her hat.
Louisa Tuck, the cafeteria and playground aide who was once a porn-star, has offered her resignation to the Board of Education, reported The Daily Journal in Vineyard, after her past attracted intense media scrutiny last month.
In a one-sentence letter to MaryAnn Greenfield, Vineland Public Schools' executive director of personnel, Tuck said she is "resigning in good standing" from her position, effective Dec. 8, at D'Ippolito Elementary School .
Tuck had been performing for many years as Crystal Gunns, an adult film star who also posed for many nude-magazine photo shoots and performed stage shows. Tuck told The Daily Journal she left the adult entertainment industry five years ago, although the Web site bearing her stage name, CrystalGunns.com, is still active.
Vineland Public Schools officials hired Tuck in June for a $5,772-a-year part-time job as an aide. Shortly thereafter, her former career – and the pictures and videos of her performing still available on the Web – came to the attention of parents and school officials.
Parents complained to both D'Ippolito School and the district's central administration office, according to e-mail exchanges, obtained under the state's Open Public Records Act, between Principal Gail Curcio and district officials.
School Board President Frank Giordano openly called for her termination, but Superintendent Charles Ottinger said attorneys for the school district and New Jersey School Board Association advised the district against taking action.
"We did not ask for (Tuck's resignation). We did not require it. We did not force it," Ottinger said.
Tuck's letter to Greenfield does not indicate why she is leaving the district, and it is not clear if the attention paid to her former career played into her decision.
After The Daily Journal reported last month that parents were raising questions and Giordano suggested she be fired, hundreds of Web-based, print and television media outlets followed the story.
Tuck has limited her public comments on the issue and asked The Daily Journal not to contact her again.
Tuck's attorney, Jeff DiLazzero, did not return repeated calls for comment on Thursday.
Ottinger said Thursday Tuck's resignation is not official until the Board of Education approves it at the next regular meeting, scheduled for Jan. 21. However, he said, Tuck could rescind her resignation at any time before the vote.
If she does change her mind before then, Ottinger reasoned, the board would allow her to keep her job because they had not asked her to step down.
First Published: Dec 12, 2008 8:35 AM PDT on NBC Philadelphia
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