Teacher May Face 40 Years in Prison for Pornography
The Story:
A public school elementary substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut may face up to 40 years in prison for an incident that happened while she taught seventh-grade students.
Last month, Julie Amero, was convicted of exposing students in her class to pornography on her classroom computer. Amero contends the pornography displayed on the computer was caused not by her willful actions, but rather accidentally caused by spy-ware and ad-ware programs. Authorities in Connecticut who prosecuted this case believe it was not accidental and continue to believe she is guilty of her crime.
My commentary:
According news reports, the school Principal admitted the school district hadn't renewed the software license for the firewall software that protected the computer in Amero's classroom. This fact doesn't sit well with me. Why isn't the school district on trial? Where is the moral, ethical, and fiscal responsibility of the school administrators and school district officials in ensuring that ALL computers in the school district have the appropriate anti-virus/anti-spyware and firewall software?
One other fact bothers me. The prosecution, according to media reports, didn't search the computer's hard drive for the presence of spyware or ad-ware! That is poor computer forensics examination of the seized computer's hard drive--there is no excuse for that on the part of the prosecution.
In my opinion, part of the blame rests also with the school board, the school administration who knowingly allowed the use of classroom computers by teachers without the appropriate anti-virus/spyware and firewall security software protections in place. Are any parents mad at the school district about this fact?
This case looks to be based on poor evidence handling by the authorities and a prosecution more interested in headline grabbing than searching for the truth. Unfortunately, here is a teacher who's been crucified based on technically circumstantial evidence. I'm sorry but this is still the United States of America, where I thought people were presumed innocent until proven guilty. In my book, the burden of proof in this case is at best circumstantial and not even close to meeting a higher degree of conclusive proof based on sound computer forensics examination of the classroom computer's hard drive.
OK, I'll get off my soap box for now--Just my $0.02 from a distance. To learn more about this case here is a link:
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Posted by: Leandro Bennaton | Wednesday, 14 February 2007 at 21:22