Breasts bared in movie get aide barred from school

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — When actress Victoria Bolton landed a role in the docudrama Free The Nipple and was asked to bare her breasts, she researched the issue to make sure the topless gig wouldn't jeopardize her job.

She is a computer aide at Woodlands High School in the Greenburgh Central School District, about 20 miles north of Manhattan.

"I thought about it, and found out it was legal," said Bolton, 37, noting that a 1992 court ruling in New York allows women to bare their breasts in public, just as men do. "Besides, I support equal rights for women. I'm not ashamed of it."

On Thursday, the White Plains, N.Y., resident was reassigned to the district's administration building after she was grilled about the film in a questioning that was part of the disciplinary protocol in the suburban school district that serves about 1,800 students.

On Friday, she received a "letter of counsel" from Mary O'Neill, Greenburgh's assistant superintendent for business, who had seen photographs from the film's Dec. 11 premiere at the International Film Center in Manhattan, at which Bolton was photographed topless.

O'Neill instructed Bolton to change the privacy settings on her Facebook page, so students could not learn about her movie exploits. O'Neill also warned that similar roles in the future could imperil her school job.

"I caution you to either limit your acting roles to those that will not result in nudity that is openly accessible to students in our district or consider whether your district position is one you can maintain, given your acting career," O'Neill wrote.

O'Neill vowed to monitor Bolton's acting career.

"To the extent your future acting roles cause a disruption in the school, we will consider taking action that may result in your termination," the assistant superintendent wrote.

The letter came as a shock to Bolton, who grew up in Chicago and served four years in the Air Force, where she developed her expertise in computer technology. Bolton joined the Greenburgh school staff in 2004. She drives a Mercedes C230, with the vanity license plate "SXYTECHY."

"They were trying to shame me," Bolton said. "And what was going on with me was making the point of the movie."

The film was shot in 2012 and premiered in December — with the support of such entertainment luminaries as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and actresses Rumer Willis and Miley Cyrus, who recorded a song for it. It's part of a national movement to allow women to shed their tops in public, which remains illegal in most states.

The film had received a prospective rating of NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, but the producers decided to keep it unrated.

Bolton plays one of the film's two dozen "topless warriors." In the film's climatic scenes, the women, all wearing ski masks, remove their shirts and stand proudly at various Manhattan locations. One actress with breast cancer was filmed after her mastectomy.

School officials were concerned with Bolton's personal Facebook page which, last week, allowed the public to see her picture next to a poster of the film, with the nipples covered by an "X."

Her Facebook page included a screen shot of a 1938 Life magazine article discussing the latest craze in Europe and California, where men went topless on beaches while that practice was still outlawed on the beaches of Atlantic City. Since then, the cultural taboo for topless men has vanished while the taboo for women remains.

Bolton said she was told that the district office had received an anonymous letter from a staff member.

"This district has bigger issues than my boobs," she said.

Interim Schools Superintendent Tahira Dupree-Chase did not return numerous phone messages.

School board President Lloyd Newland declined to comment on Bolton's situation. He said he did not plan to view the film.

Bolton said she agreed to restrict access to her acting career to her Facebook friends. She did what the district asked her to do in the letter. But, on Monday, she was still at district headquarters, barred from returning to Woodlands High.

"This past week was a learning lesson," she said. "I learned to stand my ground. I didn't panic. I didn't shed a tear. The film was made to start a conversation. We started one here."