A high school teacher put on leave after her OnlyFans was discovered has spoken out.
Megan Gaither, an English teacher and varsity cheerleading coach at St. Clair R-13 School District in Missouri, was placed on leave on 27 October after the school found out about her OnlyFans account.
The 31-year-old has since defended her ‘side hustle’ and explained why she first started it.
In a post to Facebook, Gaither noted she’s ‘put a lot of thought’ into whether she’d speak out publicly, but for her ‘own peace of mind’ wanted to address being placed on leave.
She says: “I LOVE education and teaching, and I loved seeing my students and cheerleaders learn and grow into themselves.
“I’m damned good at helping them do that. Hell, you don’t get two master’s degrees to better your craft and help your students if you don’t.
“So, while I understand the stigma and the ‘you signed a contract telling you how much you get paid’ argument, I will maintain that ‘morality’ is a sliding scale and what is moral to me may not be moral to you, and that’s ok. Don’t like it? Don’t subscribe or follow.”
Gaither explains that she ‘hid very well behind an alias’ and didn’t post any ‘face pics’ on OnlyFans and ‘did NOT want’ her side hustle to become public knowledge.
Unfortunately, she says that ‘choice was taken from’ her, claiming ‘multiple coworkers’ called newspapers to ‘start [her] downfall’.
“Speculation about a pic and a vid with no evidence was fine, but if you are in education, you know… if media gets ahold of something like this, it’s over. You’ll never work in this specific field again bc you’re tainted and seen as a liability for a school,” she continues.
But why did she risk starting an OnlyFans in the first place?
Well, Gaither told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she first started OnlyFans because ‘teaching does not financially support a person’ and she has over $125,000 in student loans to pack back.
The outlet also reports Gaither’s pay as a teacher was around $47,500.
The English teacher said: “It’s really hard to stretch those paychecks during the summer. That’s why I did it [OnlyFans].”
Gaither says she made between $3,000 and $5,000 a month from her side hustle – before she took her account down that is, when a fellow teacher was placed on leave for a similar reason.
Fellow English teacher, Brianna Coppage, was also placed on leave for selling explicit content online.
Gaither notes they both ‘knew the consequences of getting caught’ but argues she ‘did NOT get caught in the traditional sense’.
“The media was going to publish the story with or without my statement and my words. SO, I took back my narrative.
“I took control of what I could take control of. I had no time to make this decision, so to whoever thought it was their right to ‘out’ me to the media, with all disrespect, kindly f**k off my page, and enjoy seeing me everywhere. Bc I’m making noise,” Gaither says.
The English teacher resolves: “What adults do in their own time is their choice, and you have no right to dictate those choices for them, regardless of career choice.
“So, I’ll be speaking to media. I’ll be telling my story. And hey. At least I didn’t try to neglect my duties of paying back what I borrowed to get educated, right? I made the adult choice of getting a side hustle. And guess what? It’s working out ok so far.”
The school’s superintendent, Kyle Kruse, told Post-Dispatch that ‘district does not have a statement to issue at this time’.
UNILAD has contacted Megan Gaither and the St. Clair R-13 School District for further comment.
