Levi Johnston Forced to Quit Job

Stay in school and use protection, kids. That's the moral of this story.

Levi Johnston, 18, the boyfriend of Governor Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol Palin, left his position in an electrical apprenticeship program after a newspaper columnist raised questions about whether he was eligible to participate.

Since knocking up the younger Palin, Johnston had been working for ASRC Energy Services Inc. in the oil fields of North Slope County, Alaska, since the fall.

In his column for the Anchorage Daily News, area radio talk show host Dan Fagan said that federal regulations require members of the program to possess a high school diploma – which Levi Johnston does not.

He also questioned Sarah Palin's role in securing the job for Johnston. The governor has denied any help in securing Johnston the job.

THERE, THERE: At least Levi still has the support of Bristol Palin.

In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, the former Republican Vice Presidential candidate said she considered Fagan's column "a political potshot taken at me," one that threatens to "destroy a young man's opportunity for work."

Levi Johnston's father Keith tells the newspaper: "He felt it was the best thing to do to kind of calm the waters, so to speak."

Keith Johnston, who also works as a construction engineer for the company, called the diploma discrepancy an oversight.

"It's just something that slipped through the cracks," he says.

Johnston's father also said he felt like the media was focused too severely on his son, who became a father with Bristol Palin on December 27.

"You guys are watching him so tightly," Johnston said. "He's being treated different than an average 18-year-old kid. He has to do everything by the book now."

At least he can look forward to a windfall from Tripp Johnston photos.