An employee who works with children had a previous career in an industry that is meant strictly for adults.

Louisa Tuck is a cafeteria and playground aide at an elementary school in Vineland, NJ.

The school district recently discovered she had a previous career in the adult entertainment industry, according to The Daily Journal.

School Board President Frank Giordano wants to fire Tuck.

However, three lawyers consulted by the district all agree that there are no grounds to fire Tuck based on her past work.

So, the district has taken no action.

Tuck starred in adult-oriented movies, performances and photo shoots under the name Crystal Gunns.

She says it’s been five years since she worked in the adult entertainment industry.

However, her films and photos are readily available on the Internet. Just recently, a Web site under her film name was password restricted, but it was available to anyone when the school district started its investigation.

‘People can change’

Tuck also works with children at a YMCA. The Y refused to comment to the local newspaper on her work. Tuck told the newspaper, “The YMCA has been great to me. They are a Christian place that believes that people can change. I’m sorry I had to put them through this.”

A local mom whose children go to the Y said she considers Tuck a close friend and said she “would trust her with my children at any time. She has nothing but love and compassion with all kids.”

Giordano says parents are concerned and have called for Tuck’s firing. He doesn’t think it’s a healthy situation, and if it were just up to him, he would terminate her.

“We have an expectation for all the employees to be held to the highest standards … both in and out of school,” Giordano said.

Tuck “could be one of the best aides we have,” Giordano said, but he adds her involvement in the adult entertainment industry makes him question how good of a role model she can be for students.

Would you fire Tuck or keep her on staff at the elementary school? If you found out one of your employees with a good record had previously worked in the adult entertainment industry, would you fire the person? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Priyavrat Patel has been sentenced to six months in prison and three years of supervised release for sabotaging three servers at Pratt-Read in Connecticut. He also has to pay $120,000 in restitution and may face a fine at a later date.

Prosecutors say Patel knocked the servers offline over Thanksgiving weekend last year. He pleaded guilty to computer intrusion charges, according to The New York Times.

Patel admitted deleting files from the servers, hoping to bring them down. He succeeded, critically damaging operations at the Connecticut-based toolmaker for two weeks.

Late last November, Patel accessed the servers from home to retaliate against the company, according to court documents. It had fired him about a month earlier.

His attorney said Patel’s intention was to cause “a small hiccup” that would create problems for a few hours, not days. The attorney claims the company’s recovery took a lot longer than it should have because it inadvertently caused more damage while trying to repair the situation.

Take Eder Rojas, a flight attendant from Minnesota, for example. He’s been charged with setting a fire in an airplane bathroom.

Federal authorities are seeking Rojas after he failed to show up for his federal court trial.

Rojas was a flight attendant on a May 7 Compass Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan. The plane had to make an emergency landing in Fargo, ND, because of a paper towel fire in the restroom. No one was injured on the flight that carried 72 passengers and four crew members.

The federal complaint against Rojas says he was upset with the airline for making him work the route.

Rojas faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He may also be ordered to pay restitution for the damage to the plane.

So if a company is stuck with one or more of these bundles of joy, what are some steps employees who work for them can take?

In a recent issue of Business Week, an anonymous author offers what he did to handle his toxic boss:

• Set aside time each day when you’re going to deal with the boss’ needs.
• Send many short e-mail updates so the toxic boss doesn’t feel the need to call and check in.
• Hang up the phone. “My phone has a problem,” the author says. “When people have a temper tantrum, it loses its connection.” The author says the boss usually calls back later, in a better mood and says, “I guess we got cut off.”

What would you recommend an employee do who is saddled with a toxic boss? Let us know in the Comments box below.

A company fired a manager for not following directives from his superiors. The manager said he was protecting the company from a possible lawsuit. In the end, an e-mail spelled trouble for the company. A jury recently sided with the manager, awarding him $46.6 million.

Here’s what happened:

Ronald Luri was a waste collection manager for Republic Services, Inc., in Ohio.

The company wanted him to fire three employees, all of whom were in their early 60s or late 50s.

Luri refused, saying the company could face a lawsuit for age discrimination.

Then Republic fired him for alleged “inadequate performance and failure to follow the directives of this superiors.”

Luri claimed Republic forged records critical of his job performance, including an e-mail.

Evidence tampering key to jury’s decision

In deciding for Luri, the jurors said they were dismayed by testimony of evidence-tampering.

The jurors pointed to an e-mail attributed to Luri’s boss, Republic’s Ohio-area president. Luri’s lawyers called an IT expert who said the president postdated a memo and added two paragraphs that were critical of Luri’s job performance.

Republic’s lawyers said Luri’s allegations were “nothing more than his badly bruised ego.” The company plans to appeal.

“We wanted to send a clear message that this was unjustly done and that they tried to ruin his career,” said the jury foreman.

Another juror said, “Republic was out to get this man.”

The jury decided Luri should get $3.5 million for lost wages as general manager of Republic’s Cleveland division.

The rest of the award — $43.1 million — was in punitive damages, making it the largest verdict in Ohio history by at least $10 million.

What would you do if an employee violated a supervisor’s directives and said he was doing it to protect the company from potential lawsuits? Let us know in the comments section below.