Catholic nursery school sacks teacher after parent found her OnlyFans

A Catholic nursery school teacher has been sacked for allegedly damaging a ‘relationship of trust’ after a parent discovered her racy OnlyFans page.

Elena Maraga, 29, became embroiled in scandal last month after her pupil’s father allegedly bought photos she had been selling on the content creation site.

Maraga claims ‘his wife found out’ about the images after he ‘distributed them to the football group’, A2 reports.

She was suspended without pay from her job at a nursery school near Treviso, in northern Italy, in mid-March after refusing to delete her account. 

A group of 30 parents reportedly signed a petition opposing her dismissal and a trade union fought off moves to fire her, but Maraga was officially fired on Tuesday.

The school said her contract was terminated ‘for just cause with immediate effect’, alleging that her OnlyFans profile ‘contrasts with the Catholic inspiration that guides the educational direction of the school’, according to the ANSA news organisation.

But the teacher, who had spent five years of permanent teaching at the institution, has criticised the nursery’s decision.

‘They sent me a letter saying I was fired for inappropriate behaviour because the relationship of trust has been damaged. I find it 100% unfair,’ she said, adding that ‘taking compromising photos has never compromised my professionalism at work.’

Maraga says she launched her OnlyFans account because her teaching salary of around 1,200 euros (£1,000) a month is ‘unsustainable’ on its own.

‘I like myself, I turned my passion for my body into a way to earn income. I don’t understand what the problem is,’ she told A2.

Maraga’s termination had been up in the air, but the school said the decision to sack her was accelerated by her media interviews.

The nursery alleges her public statements have ‘irreparably damaged the element of trust: we cannot continue the employment relationship’.

Maraga has not yet decided if she will fight her firing, but did brand her terminations as an ‘injustice’. She claims her former employer ‘attacked me, saying I was seeking media attention’ and alleged that they ‘never wanted to talk to me’ about the issue.

‘They have always acted with letters and have never wanted dialogue. I am surprised that a Catholic school that preaches morality treats an employee in this way,’ she added.

Maraga’s story had garnered sympathy from some parents, who continue to praise her ‘fantastic’ work with children – and support her case that her ‘external’ work does not affect her ability to teach. 

‘There are some mothers who want to support me. They want me to continue teaching their children,’ she told Open last month. 

Maraga has remained adamant that she should be able to continue moonlighting on the OnlyFans and teaching.

She said in previous interviews that what she does on OnlyFans ‘does no harm to anyone … people should be allowed to do what they like in their private lives’. 

‘I am not ashamed of what I do,’ she added, insisting that she is ‘adult and aware’ of what she is doing. She shared that her parents ‘know about my ‘extra work’ life and don’t agree,’ but noted that ‘they say that at almost 30 I can make the choices I want’.

‘My body is the result of hard work in bodybuilding, I think it is right to enhance it, even economically,’ she told local media.

Maraga, who says she has a degree in Educational Sciences, started looking at other careers after struggling as a poorly-paid teacher. She told Italian media that teaching is her ‘calling’ but admitted she earns ‘much more on the Internet’. 

‘I love teaching children, it’s my calling,’ she told Open in March. ‘I opened OnlyFans a month ago, partly for fun, partly out of curiosity, partly to see if you could really earn money. In one day I get a month’s salary.’

She added that she is ‘proud of the physical results I’ve achieved’ and likes to ‘show them off’.

The education ministry in Italy last month vowed to draw up a new code of ethics that would ban teachers from appearing on websites such as OnlyFans, according to the Telegraph.

The adult entertainment industry has seen a boom since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is now believed millions of people produce content for subscriptions sites such as OnlyFans, Just for Fans and Clips4Sale.

‘I think that there was a time prior to the pandemic where the idea that someone might become a porn star was akin to saying that someone might be abducted by aliens,’ Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, told the Associated Press in late 2023. 

‘I think that what the pandemic and the sort of explosion of fan content showed was that a lot of people were open to doing it.’

It frequently proves risky, though. A report at the time found 3 in 5 adult entertainment performers have experienced employment discrimination. 

The report, based on a survey of more than 600 people in the industry, said 64 per cent of adult creators have no other significant source of income, while there were no details on the occupations of those who did.