Art Teacher/Hooker

[EpyonXero]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...W8KdcAfpgrK3WP

Bronx teacher admits: I'm an ex-hooker
By KEVIN FASICK and YOAV GONEN

Last Updated: 5:03 PM, September 27, 2010

Posted: 1:20 AM, September 27, 2010

Meet Melissa Petro -- the teacher who gives a new twist to "sex ed."

The tattooed former hooker and stripper has been teaching art in a Bronx elementary school for three years, The Post has learned.

Calling herself a "for mer sex worker," the well-liked teacher has been shockingly up front about her past -- posting online accounts of her sexcapades in Mexico and Lon don.

But in her boldest move, the 30-year-old posted an essay this month claiming she also had been a pros titute.

"From October 2006 to January 2007, I accepted money in exchange for sexual services I provided to men I met online in what was then called the 'erotic services' section of Craigslist.org," wrote Petro on The Huffington Post, using her real name and picture.

The attached bio identifies Petro, who has an MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School, as a "former sex worker, researcher, writer, educator, and feminist."

It appears she managed to keep her shenanigans a secret from parents at PS 70 -- who were stunned by the revelation.

"I don't want nobody that used to do that to be around my kid," said Grace Ventura, whose son is in third grade. "People like that should not be allowed to be anywhere near children."

Yocelyn Quezada said perhaps Petro had managed to turn her life around, but she still fumed that a former money honey was teaching two of her three kids.

"She's not a good role model. I do not want my daughters to find out about this," Quezada said, "and I do not want my daughters to be around that kind of person."

Despite predicting in one online posting that "that this would be a conversation I'd someday be compelled to have," Petro declined twice to speak with The Post.

Principal Kerry Castellano referred questions to the Department of Education's press office, which said Petro had been reassigned to administrative duties pending an investigation

But Petro's posts show she was warned by at least two school staffers -- including one administrator -- that her refusal to be more cautious about her history could land her in hot water.

"In an off the record conversation, a sympathetic administrator kindly asked if I couldn't publish under a pseudonym. I wish, for her sake, I could," Petro recently wrote on The Rumpus, an online magazine.

Petro, who earns $61,000 a year, also wrote that a co-worker had warned her that some of her colleagues were beginning to Google her.

"There have been lots of rumors going around about her for a while now," one school worker told The Post. "I wouldn't want my kid to be in a school where she is."

kevin.fasick@nypost.com