Teacher Faces Prison For Pop Up Porn In Classroom

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MrsSpringsteen

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I find it hard to believe that she'll actually get any prison time, given some of the facts that are described here. I wonder why all the jurors came to that decision and what the legal basis for it was. Was it all really because she didn't throw a coat over it? I'm sure perhaps she was panicked and not thinking entirely clearly. Or maybe it was the lack of other reported problems wih porn popups.

How could the prosecutor allege that she actually clicked on the sites (by that I assume he meant she navigated them, not that she was clicking to try to stop them).

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/13/teacher.porn.ap/index.html
 
If she were under orders not to turn off the computer, all she had to do was turn the monitor screen off, or like was said, throw a coat over it. She reacted stupidly, but Jiminy Cricket, she shouldn't get prison time for being stupid.
 
Maybe the school should be in trouble for not having appropriate measures for protecting computers that kids have access to?

Not everyone knows they can turn off the monitor without turning off the computer. It's funny to you and I, but my mom has a difficult time understanding the concept.

This case is ridiculous. They didn't even bother to gather the evidence that could be used for or against her. The whole thing hinges on whether she clicked on the sites or they were generated by spyware. Without checking for spyware or getting logs from the computer, it's totally pointless! Like they said, it's like doing a murder investigation without bothering to gather any evidence besides what witnesses say, and anyone who's taken even an introductory course in criminal investigations knows that witness testimony is probably the worse and least reliable type of evidence.
 
Liesje said:
Maybe the school should be in trouble for not having appropriate measures for protecting computers that kids have access to?

Sounds like a good plan to me. It's not hard (or expensive) to protect one's computer from this level of spyware.

I run a free firewall, a free virus scanner and a free anti-spyware software, and because of it all, this kind of thing just doesn't happen to my PC.
 
80sU2isBest said:


Sounds like a good plan to me. It's not hard (or expensive) to protect one's computer from this level of spyware.

I run a free firewall, a free virus scanner and a free anti-spyware software, and because of it all, this kind of thing just doesn't happen to my PC.

Exactly. Plus, computers in classrooms that aren't always monitored should probably only have access to a local intranet (so teachers can access e-mail and other school resources) or at least have a pretty tight filter on them. Also, our public computers available to students run apps that reset the computers config every time it's restarted, so it's not even possible for a virus or spyware to remain on the computer even if someone downloaded it intentionally.

It's very easy and common to get attacked by pop-ups, so I sincerely doubt she's lying, but it's just as easy to protect the computer so that the teacher never encounters this situation.
 
This is just ridiculous. It's incredibly easy to check to see what sites have been visited, I'm sure most computer techs could check this. Sure sounds like a young prosecutor trying to make a name for himself...my state is shaming me today :(

That said, if they check and she was indeed surfing porn sites that's another story. But can you imagine someone being so stupid to do that? If the kids saw the screen, couldn't they tell if she was visiting sites vs. trying to close popup windows?

Stupid jury.
 
Why didn't the defense get a computer technician as a professional witness (is that the correct term?) to explain how spyware works and show how the computer was infested? And, as CTU2fan suggested, show what web sites were visited. The defense botched it big time.

And who's to say the students didn't pull up the porn? They're seventh-graders, not innocent little toddlers. These kids are 12-13 years old and undoubtably far more computer-savvy than the teacher. Some brat wanting to stir up trouble could easily pull up the site and coerce his/her classmates into blaming the teacher.
 
Sue DeNym said:
And who's to say the students didn't pull up the porn? They're seventh-graders, not innocent little toddlers. These kids are 12-13 years old and undoubtably far more computer-savvy than the teacher. Some brat wanting to stir up trouble could easily pull up the site and coerce his/her classmates into blaming the teacher.

Amero says that before her class started, a teacher allowed her to e-mail her husband. She says


she used the computer and went to the bathroom, returning to find the permanent teacher gone and two students viewing a Web site on hair styles.


Amero says she chased the students away and started class. But later, she says, pornographic images started popping up on the computer screen by themselves.


bingo

it seems like these students downloaded
a self extracting zip file or something

I would not be surprised if some parents were pushing this

and the school board is scapegoating the teacher for liability reasons
 
^Some people still believe in this image of the innocent young children who never could come to the idea of watching porn sites.

But that's another topic, because I don't think the children, nor the teacher, was intentionally visitng such a page.

I think America should start stopping to sue each and everything over nothing. This teacher saw the pop ups popping and didn't know what to do but to close the windows.
Of course she could have reacted otherwise, but I think in that situation she just didn't know what to do and hoped she could get the pop-ups disappear by clicking on them.
As she said, she didn't know much about computers, so she certainly didn't think there are pop-ups that generate themselves over and over again.

Even in 2004 spyware, viruses and other stuff was very well known, so when they are so happy that they can finally sue someone again they should go for the people that are responsible for the computers as they should know best how important protection is.

It sure wasn't handled professionally, but it's so sick and stupid that they go to court because of that.
 
It was a criminal case and not a civil one (that's the impression I get), so it would have been the state pushing it and not the parents and there wasn't any suing involved. If she goes to prison she will probably end up serving more time than many purveyors of child internet porn ever do because they just get away with it. Seems to me the time, money, and resources of govts would be better spent on that than on this teacher who can't really be proven to be guilty of the intent to do that (it seems very doubtful given the facts given). But that's where the jury comes in. Maybe people want to blame a teacher rather than face the reality of what their kids might be up to at home (or elsewhere) on a computer and make the effort to control that. So maybe the jury had that sort of feeling.
 
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80sU2isBest said:
She reacted stupidly, but Jiminy Cricket, she shouldn't get prison time for being stupid.

Funny, I always figured "being stupid" was the number one reason for people going to jail in the first place. :hmm:

Seriously though, this is absolutely ridiculous. 200 years from now historians are going to laugh their asses off at us. Either that, or they'll all be dead from non-existent global warming or we'll have blown ourselves up first.

But you get the idea. This is absurd.
 
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