{"id":16296,"date":"2011-11-02T20:29:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T03:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=16296"},"modified":"2011-11-02T20:29:37","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T03:29:37","slug":"phoenix-jones-loses-job-barred-from-working-with-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/11\/02\/phoenix-jones-loses-job-barred-from-working-with-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Jones Loses Job, Barred From Working With Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted: http:\/\/publicola.com\/2011\/11\/02\/phoenix-jones-loses-job-barred-from-working-with-children\/<\/a>
\nBy Jonah Spangenthal-Lee<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSeattle\u2019s most famous masked crusader, Phoenix Jones, is now an unemployed superhero after he was let go from his job teaching life skills to autistic kids, and told by the state that he is no longer allowed to work with vulnerable children or adults following his arrest last month, PubliCola has learned.
\n\u201cI had to leave work in the middle of the day,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIt was\u00a0embarrassing.\u201d
\nJones explained that he has worked with five developmentally disabled autistic children\u2014who ranged in age from four to 18 years old\u2014for the last five years at their homes and state care facilities, going shopping with them, teaching them to balance checkbooks, and going for walks.
\nJones\u2019 latest troubles come weeks after he was arrested by Seattle police for allegedly pepper spraying a group of men and women<\/a> near Pioneer Square. Jones claims he was breaking up a fight, but police arrested him for assault. \u00a0Following a court appearance in the case, Jones revealed his secret identity<\/a> as 23-year-old mixed martial arts fighter Ben Fodor.
\nProsecutors have not filed charges for the incident, and a spokeswoman for the city attorney\u2019s office says the case is still being investigated.
\nLast week, Jones received a letter\u00a0from the state Department of Social and Health Services, informing him he is no longer allowed to work with kids. PubliCola was not able to determine exactly why DSHS disqualified Jones from working with kids, but it appears to be due to his pending assault case.
\nWhen contacted for a comment, Jones said he had been advised not to speak extensively about the circumstances of his apparent termination, but confirmed he was no longer able to work with autistic children.
\n\u201cThey all knew I was Phoenix Jones,\u201d he says.
\nJones says that because of his arrest, he\u2019s on \u201ca list\u201d that prohibits him from working with children, because he\u00a0has \u201ca history of interjecting myself into situations that are dangerous.\u201d
\nJones, naturally, disputes that characterization. \u201cI would say I have a history of fighting crime,\u201d he says. \u201cThe whole point of what I do is to keep people safe.\u201d
\nJones isn\u2019t sure how he\u2019ll pay the bills now. He says he\u2019s received\u00a0offers for fight bouts from the Strikeforce mixed martial arts organization, and plans to start fighting crime in the daytime, in addition to his night patrols around Seattle. Other than that, he says, \u201cI really don\u2019t know.\u201d\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jones says that because of his arrest, he\u2019s on \u201ca list\u201d that prohibits him from working with children, because he has \u201ca history of interjecting myself into situations that are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[232,286,507,1350,1374,1724,2041,2116,2338,2515,2890],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}