‘No regrets’: US high school teacher investigated over her OnlyFans page

A high school in the US state of Missouri is investigating one of its teachers after it discovered her OnlyFans page, according to US media.

Ms Brianna Coppage said she was put on administrative leave after being interviewed by two officers on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old’s access to school e-mail and other software has been suspended.

Ms Coppage does not know how the authorities discovered her OnlyFans page.

OnlyFans is an online subscription service offering explicit adult content.

But some time in mid-September, she and her husband were told that people were finding out about her side job.

The school district’s superintendent, Mr Kyle Kruse, released a statement confirming the incident.

He said the district has “engaged legal counsel to conduct a comprehensive investigation”.

Ms Coppage acknowledged that her teaching career is probably over, but said that she has no regrets, although she misses her students.

She taught English at St Clair High School in the city of St Clair, about 107km from the state capital of Jefferson City.

Ms Coppage joined the OnlyFans website to supplement her income, CBS News reported.

As its content is available only to subscribers, she thought her identity would be protected.

She added that she did not film or post content while she was at school.

As a teacher, Ms Coppage made about US$42,000 (S$57,700) in 2022, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

Her OnlyFans gig is said to have earned her an additional US$8,000 to US$10,000 a month.

Since word spread about her OnlyFans page, it has gained about 100 new subscribers.

Ms Coppage has also more than doubled her subscription price and plans to continue posting on the site.

Some parents were also supportive of her choices, she told The Missourian newspaper.

“A lot of community members were saying, ‘Leave her alone, this is her private business. It has nothing to do with her in the classroom.’ ”

An online petition supporting Ms Coppage had received more than 240 signatures as at Monday, CBS News reported.

Teachers turning to OnlyFans to supplement an income is not a new phenomenon, although experiences have differed.

In the US state of Arizona, a husband-and-wife pair lost their jobs in October 2022 after their OnlyFans page was discovered.

The woman said she was forced to resign after being harassed by people in her community, People magazine reported, while her husband was fired.

In Singapore, a secondary school teacher quit her teaching job altogether in 2022 to become an OnlyFans content creator.

Some netizens reacted negatively, with one saying the authorities needed to improve their vetting process when hiring teachers.

However, one netizen said the former teacher’s career choice should not matter, as long as she does not return to the education sector.