Samantha Ardente is shown in a photo taken from a Facebook page. Ardente, an office worker at a Quebec City-area school, is awaiting word on her fate after she was suspended for appearing in a pornographic movie.
By day, she was a youthful office assistant in a Quebec City-area high school. In her spare time, she was raunchy Samantha Ardente, cavorting in "Serial Abusers 2."
Ardente - which is the clerical worker's porn-actress name - is now waiting to find out how much more free time is in store for her as authorities at the Navigateur school board determine if she deserves more than a suspension with pay for her extra-curricular activities.
Ardente was sent home after authorities learned one of the high school students had spotted her in the porn video.
The student had tried to get her autograph, says Nicolas Lafleur - owner of adult-content producer Pega Productions, which made her movie. He said the woman tried to get the kid to keep his discovery a secret.
That request for discretion was denied. The video spread like wildfire as the teenagers forwarded each other the Internet links.
She did not have contact with students in her job but, suddenly, she had become a school celebrity.
Mr. Lafleur says when the youth started spreading the word around the school, Ardente went to her bosses and addressed the situation.
"I've spoken to her several times since her suspension," Mr. Lafleur said Thursday in an interview with The Canadian Press. "She's certainly very shaken by this.
"She's afraid for her job because her job is her priority. She's worked for the school commission for several years now so this is serious for her."
Louise Boisvert, a spokeswoman for the school board, said a decision should be made on Ardente's fate by next week.
While officials acknowledge Ardente hadn't done anything illegal, the school board said her cinematic activities don't correspond with the values being taught at the school.
The school is located in Levis, Que., across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.
Ardente has reportedly worked for the school commission since 2002 and at Les Etchemins school for the last two years.
Mr. Lafleur said Ardente is not doing media interviews, to the best of his knowledge, on the advice of her union.
Mr. Lafleur, whose company has been in business since 2005, said Ardente had made several films.
He said he didn't know why the longtime school-board employee decided to start making adult films but noted, "I didn't have the impression she wanted to make a career of it."
He said she made the films in a concentrated period over two or three years and noted Ardente isn't a particularly unusual case among porn actors.
"The majority are those who have their day job in another area and decide to have an experience," he said.
The website belonging to the company that produced her movie was deluged with traffic Thursday to the point that it was only allowing access to paying members.
Mr. Lafleur said the traffic was "more than usual" and obviously driven by people who were generally curious about the adult content on the site.
"That's why we decided last night to limit access to the site because we didn't want it to turn into a freak show," he said, adding he was also concerned about students from the school trying to get access.
The site also directed viewers to Ardente's Facebook page where viewers were greeted by a picture of a slender, smiling brunette in her underwear, a racing-stripe style blond streak running through her hair.
Ardente, who listed her occupation as "porn actress" and her interests as "pornography and secretarial work," got mixed reviews on the page although most of the comments were supportive.
Stephan Bedard took issue with Ardente's defenders who insisted she was being penalized for something she did in her private life.
"Incidently, it's not private," Mr. Bedard wrote. "You got paid to do a dirty video knowing it would be distributed on the Internet and elsewhere. It's public.
"If she had group sex with three people in her home and her neighbour filmed it . . . that's private ... you shouldn't confuse things!"
Others were more sympathetic, saying what Ardente did on her own time was her own business as long as it didn't affect her work at the school.