, 2007-02-12
Substitute teacher Julie Amero faces up to 40 years in prison for exposing kids to porn using a classroom computer, but the facts strongly suggest that she was wrongfully convicted. Many issues remain, from the need for an independent computer forensics investigation and the presence of spyware and adware on the machine, to bad or incomplete legal work on both sides of this criminal case.
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Mouse-Trapped
2007-02-13
Anonymous (6 replies)
Anonymous (6 replies)
Mouse-Trapped - A lesson to be learned
2007-02-22
MikeP (1 replies)
MikeP (1 replies)
Re: Mouse-Trapped - A lesson to be learned
2007-02-22
Anonymous (1 replies)
Anonymous (1 replies)

If this was a class monitor visible by students and teacher, it makes no sense that the teacher would surf for porn in full view of the class. The question of why the teacher didn't turn off the monitor would be valid, but she did go and ask for help about the problem. I can only presume that she moved the students far enough away from the monitor that the thumbnail images were not visible. (The forensic examination deemed inadmissible found only images around 15Kb).
If the monitor was at the front of the class on the teacher's desk, facing towards the teacher and away from the class, the idea that the teacher might surf for porn is more feasible, but the accusation that the teacher corrupted the student's morals by not turning the monitor off is not understandable: if she pushed students away from the screen (as reports of students' statements at the trial say she did) then she pushed the students out of view of the screen and there was no reason for here to turn off the monitor as she had been instructed not to do so.
Either way, the accusations of surfing for porn *and* exposing students to it make no sense together.
From the evidence, I believe the teacher was not surfing for porn, but that pop-ups originated because of malicious script on an innocent-looking site. Examination of the classroom layout may also show that students were either far enough away from the screen that the images displayed were not visible, or even completely out of sight of the screen.
Sadly it seems that even if the class were exposed to tiny thumbnail images at a distance, this would be enough for some people to convict the teacher. The Norwich journalist covering the case for example who wrote: "Here are the facts: Amero showed graphic pornography to up to 10 children" and [Amiro] "let multiple children, all ... younger than 16, see people performing sexual acts upon each other on a school computer screen."
http://bulletineducationblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/enough.htm
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This is not to mention the fact that the school is equally culpable for not providing a secure and protected system and for not helping when advised of the problem. Nor the fact that inexperienced computer users can have trouble even finding the off switch.
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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/434/34376#34376