Lauren Miranda: Teacher Fired Over Topless Selfie

Lauren Miranda

News 12 Long Island screengrab Lauren Miranda, teacher fired for topless photo

Lauren Miranda is a former New York teacher who plans to file a $3 million lawsuit after she was fired over a nude selfie, News 12 reports.

Miranda, a former math teacher at Bellport Middle School in Suffolk, Long Island, was fired after a topless photo she sent to a teacher she was dating was sent around the school district without her consent.

Miranda, 25, says a student somehow obtained the photo and shared it. She said the photo was taken two years ago and said does not know how the student obtained the photo.

Miranda’s attorney said at a press conference Monday that she was fired last week, several months after the South Country School District superintendent told her the photo was being circulated online.

She said there was nothing obscene about the photo.

“It’s pure,” she said, according to the New York Post. “I’m getting makeup in one hand, and I’m taking a picture in the other.”

Lauren Miranda To File Gender Discrimination Suit Over Nude Photo Firing

Miranda’s attorney, John Ray, called the firing discrimination.

He said Miranda will file a gender discrimination lawsuit against the school district unless the school re-instates her.

The superintendent told Miranda that “wasn’t going to happen,” according to News 12.

Miranda said the firing was unjust because she never meant for the photo to get out and it was obtained without her consent.

Miranda said she is looking for another teaching job in a different school district.

“Long ago, she sent her topless unremarkable selfie to her companion, never to anyone else,” Ray said. “By unknown means, a student obtained it. The school district took possession of it, excoriated her, and fired her because her breasts were displayed.”


Miranda Says a Male Teacher Would Not Have Been Punished

Ray said at the press conference that Miranda would have been treated differently if she were a male teacher in the same situation.

“This would never have happened to a male teacher,” Ray said, according to the New York Post. “The Suffolk County Administrators and School Board have not yet discovered that women are equal to men. Lauren is rightly proud of her female torso. A woman’s breasts are not inherently prurient.”

Miranda said that she wanted to fight her termination to be an example for her former students.

“What kind of role model am I, to now roll over and hide?” she said. “I am showing my face and saying something happened to me that I didn’t want.”

The school district declined to comment on media reports, citing the pending litigation.

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