West Boca Porn Star (and Math Tutor) Runs for School Board

Well that was interesting. Yesterday I sat down with school board candidate David Mech at Jon Smith Subs in Mission Bay Plaza. Mr. Mech has a math tutoring business in West Boca. He became motivated to get his political message out when the school district took his sign down because of his past history as an actor in the adult entertainment industry. He’s suing the district over that. Various media have picked up on this story not because of Mech’s policy views but also because of his past.
We were more interested in policy issues and his candidacy so we focused on that in our conversation (for those with other interests the porn-related information is at the bottom of the article).
He’s very likeable and he makes some sense. Mech is well educated, smart, and his views on schools are thoughtful and interesting.
But it became apparent early in the conversation that Mech is not trying to win the school board race. He doesn’t know what his district lines are, how many voters are in his district, and has no plan to get his campaign message out to the voters in the district other than getting media attention due to his previous career. He wasn’t even sure how many seats there are on the board. There are all things a serious candidate should know.
We’ve figured out some of that. He’s running for District 3, which runs north from Clint Moore and west of Military Trail. There are seven seats, so that works out to less than 200,000 residents per district.
Instead Mech says he’s trying to get a message out about issues. Unfortunately his message might be too complicated for the level of attention he’s going to get. He mentioned five general topics: Technology, Innovation, Equality, Sex Education, and Secular Values.
I like some of his suggestions, such as a pilot program incorporating Khan Academy. However, much of what he talked about seemed out of touch with voters. His “equality” issue is not about disparate treatment of students based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, but rather about employment protection for teachers and other staff who have made “lawful lifestyle choices” such as working in porn or just having sexy pictures on the internet. Is this something that motivates voters?
He complained that the incumbent in the race is wasting time pushing for a parent dress code for school events. While there are certainly bigger issues, her idea is probably more important to more voters than his “equality for sexy teachers” issue.
Even though he works with kids in our schools, he was not familiar with many of the concerns I’ve heard from other parents and experienced ourselves. He was only marginally aware of the magnet schools and choice programs, or disciplinary problems plaguing some of our schools. He was unaware of textbook quality concerns or homework loads.
Despite those criticisms, I like the guy, particularly his experience as a math tutor and his obvious mathematical competence. There’s a shortage of that in the education establishment. If I lived in the district I’d probably vote for him just because it would be nice to see if he could shake things up a bit. And the district pretty clearly screwed him when they took his sign down, a clear violation of his First Amendment rights.
Speaking of which, for those more interested in his career in adult entertainment, Mech operated under the stage name Dave Pounder. He published a book last year under that pseudonym, Obscene Thoughts: Obscene Thoughts: A Pornographer’s Perspective on Sex, Love, and Dating. He’s also done a documentary, Risky Business: A Look Inside America’s Adult Film Industry, as Dave Mech:

Risky Business: A Look Inside America’s Adult Film Industry – Trailer from Shorts Sandals Entertainment on Vimeo.

As best we can tell Mech appeared in over 100 adult films and directed over 100 titles for outfits such as BangBros.com. Titles of his films include the 18 with Proof series, Teenage Delinquents (we might have to use that for one of our crime articles), and I Scored a Soccer Mom that would be more than suitable for a website that caters to a specific sexual fantasy, somewhat similar to various videos you could view at maturepornvideos and other sites for example.