A teacher at St. Clair High School has been placed on administrative leave after district officials became aware of her account on adult website OnlyFans.
Brianna Coppage, 28, of Sullivan, who taught in the communication arts department at St. Clair High School since last August, told The Missourian that she believes she will be fired because of the attention that she received starting last week, when a local resident anonymously exposed her online. Coppage said she was put on leave on Wednesday, Sept. 27, after being interviewed by two administrators.
Coppage Under Investigation for Posting Inappropriate Content on the Internet
Kyle Kruse, superintendent of St. Clair R-XIII schools, said in a statement that the district is aware that a teacher "may have posted inappropriate media on one or more internet sites."
"The District has engaged legal counsel to conduct a comprehensive investigation of this matter," Kruse said. "Actions taken as a result of the investigation will be in accordance with Board policy and with guidance from legal counsel."
Coppage Started OnlyFans in the Summer to Supplement Her Teachers' Income
Coppage said she started her OnlyFans account this past summer when she was not working as a teacher and "didn't expect much of it at all."
"I just knew some people that were doing it, and it was something that my husband and I agreed to do together," she said.
But she said the material she posted did surprisingly well. OnlyFans and other similar platforms allow creators like Coppage to post content, pornographic or otherwise, to subscribers and charge those subscribers a fee. Coppage said she now takes home thousands of dollars each month to supplement her teacher's income, a little over $42,000 last year.
"I believe that teachers are wildly underpaid everywhere, and Missouri has some of the lowest pay in the United States," she said. "I absolutely do have to supplement my income."
Coppage Doxxed Despite Using Fake Names Online
Coppage maintains that she kept her two jobs completely separate. She said she used fake names online and only showed her face to paying subscribers. She said she doesn't know how her true identity was revealed; if, as she suspects, one of her subscribers copied or recorded her media from OnlyFans, it would be in violation of the site's acceptable use policy. The policy prohibits distribution of creators' material without their consent.
She said that students and former students found her pages, posting her real name and where she worked on social media. She was then approached by school administrators, who inquired how long she has had the OnlyFans page, how recently she had posted on the page and whether she ever created pornographic content in the school, which she vehemently denies.
Coppage said she does not regret making the OnlyFans page, but that considering losing her teaching career is extremely difficult for her. Kruse said that the board does have a particular policy for staff conduct but declined to speak on whether Coppage in particular broke it, citing the district's investigation.
"I don't feel shame, because I think that's the first thing that people are trying to do, and that's kind of the first thing that people jump to in these kinds of situations," Coppage said. "I'm sad. I do miss my students. I had some really good connections."
