Teacher on trial after cyberporn school lesson
We all know that the world of internet anonymity, especially this sexual one may be a bit dangerous. But you can be in contact with adult content even on places where you would never expect it: A US judge has ordered a retrial of a schoolteacher found guilty of computer porn charges after a sustained campaign by internet specialists proclaiming her innocence. Julie Amero, 40, was convicted in January of causing a series of sex advertisements to pop up on a classroom computer, which were seen by pupils in October 2004. She faces up to 40 years in jail. But the defence filed a motion for a retrial, and at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday Judge Hillary Strackbein granted the application. The prosecution at the trial in Connecticut had alleged Amero must have clicked on porn websites for the pop-ups to begin appearing. But after the trial 28 computer science academics in the state sought to prove that the rapid-fire sequence could have appeared automatically.
Sympathetic campaigners argue such pop-ups are one of the scourges of the internet and say she is the victim of a witchhunt. The computer was sent to a state laboratory after the trial, and Judge Strackbein said its report might contradict evidence presented by the state computer expert, a police detective. “The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty information.” The prosecution did not oppose the defence motion for a retrial. Neither the prosecution nor the jury appear to have been fully aware of the extent to which computers can be infiltrated, especially old ones that do not have firewall protection. I think this is little overreacted – honestly, how many of you can see an accidental popup on your company from time to time? And noone think you are a perv…
Comments(36)
40 years, for porn? uhhh i gotta go….
haha, fucking yanks. It was a mother fucking pop up! if she was making them watch kiddie porn while she master bated, sure.. throw her in jail for a few days. Shit, give her a break heh
Only in America … 40 years for a freakin’ pop-up? What are they thinking …
Wtf? Where’s the link to the lesson?
Again, why does this teacher who accidentally showed her class porn popups, get a stricker sentence than most violent offenders and murderers?
OVerraction is an understatment.
Even if she did it on purpose, where is the logic?
Wouldn’t the sanest course be to go after whatever company issued the ads? Isn’t it illegal to show children porn (obviously) and these were popups, which have no way to determine if you of legal age. The spam/porn company is at fault. ASWELL as the schools IT staff or lack there of.
On a school or government network there is NO excuse for being able to hit porn sites or porn banners without actively circumventing the firewall and filters.
I actually heard about this case several months ago and it really seemed that none of the individuals conducting the process had any technical understanding of Internet browsing and basic preventive security measures associated with it. In my opinion, witchhunt or autodafe are both good terms for describing this little sad incident.
Let all who would argue that the US justice system isn’t completely fucking retarded look upon this and marvel at how wrong they are.
On the basis of a singular case? I’m wonder if the justice system is the one who is retarded…
So, you’re making the argument that any nation that would allow such a case to go to trial doesn’t have a justice system that’s irreperably fucked? You’re funny. I like you. You are my new friend.
I’m not familiar with the specifics of this case to an extent where I can allow myself to jump to any serious conclusions, especially to all-inclusive ones. However, I seriously doubt that there is one judiciary in the world that haven’t had any hiccups like that during the last 25-50 years of its existence. The U.S. judicial system certainly has its number (great number, I might add) of imperfections and plain deficiencies, but calling it irreparably screwed it a bit of overstatement, at least in my largely uneducated opinion.
Theres nothing like “logic” in the US and A its simply the weirdest country existing to date.
Like the “incident” with Miss Jackson at the “super Bowl ?” omg what a good laught we hab at u over here in Europe, maybe not all of the us citicens are that much narrow minded gun wielding freaks, but i think for at least 50 % its reality, im totally overwhelmed how dumb peaplo can get if they are sedatet by a government like bushs.
I don’t think you don’t have a solid understanding of the America’s politics, social structure, and most aspects of its cultural diversity to be able to defend your “weirdest country existing to date” point of view. The Jackson incident, for example is something I don’t have a personal interest in, since I don’t watch football, don’t mind naked breasts, and don’t like the Jacksons altogether.
That leads me to the point most outside observers fail to understand: moderate Americans, such as myself (although I have to admit I somewhat deviate from their majority due to my European descent) don’t participate in crazy leftist or rightist ideas and events that can be often seen on world’s TV screens. What you usually see and perceive as the American way of doing things is usually caused by a relatively small number of radical individuals spend all their time and efforts trying to enforce their extremal ideology onto others. Most of us in the middle, however, are too busy doing something more important to be able (or wanting) to negate the general aura of insanity being emitted by these people, and that’s where the comments like “stupid Americans” or “there’s no concept of logic in the U.S.” kick in…
im from canada, and as a neighbor of USA i can honestly say mistakes like this can and WILL happen in legal systems, as much as i dislike george dubya, i
huge rant that was funny gone, oh well :/
quote: “usually caused by a relatively small number of radical individuals spend all their time and efforts trying to enforce their extremal ideology onto others” /quote
You’re talking about the American Govt here son – the very people who are supposed to be looking out for you. The same people who send school teachers to jail while letting the biggest criminals of all run the friggin country.
They should call it the US of AFU (All F*cked Up)
America = win
The American Government? I am talking about an insignificant local court and even less significant local judge that preside in a city so insignificant (Norwich, population 36,000) I had to use Google to find its location on the U.S. map. 36,000! My building has more people living in it, for god’s sake… Do you seriously think a provincial case like this (no matter how ridiculous it may be) can be viewed as a defining factor for evaluating overall priorities or performance of the government’s workers?
One more point I’d like to mention. I am no fan of the current U.S. administration, and, certainly, I can see a whole range of serious problems facing the state at this time. At the same time, I’d like ones who ruthlessly criticize the U.S to come out and disclose the names of their own countries. Not because this will allow me to insult your homeland as well, but because I am quite curious to know the names of the world nations that do not have any social or political problems they have to deal with.
JESUS!!! I am fucking shocked! 40 years for some kids FINALLY understanding what sex is all about? LIKE THEY DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW?!?! LIKE THEY NEVER SAW ANY PORN EVER IN THEIR LIFE?!?! THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY YOU FUCKING COCK SUCKING AMERICAN PRUDES!! It’s INSANE shit like this that is one day going to end the barrel of a shotgun in my mouth and make me pull the trigger…
lol is there humans on us and a or donkeys? im in doubt NOT lolol
What’s with this US and A shit? It’s the US OF A. Not ‘and’… Idiot Europeans.
I’m not European because the 2×2 meter room I life in is not a part of it, period. I have my own country, political system and I even have my own continent which is called a continent because it is separated by thick walls with multiple layers of paint and wallpaper. I just wanted to point that out before any of you morons would come after me for pointing out what a bunch of morons you were. Morons! That only goes for everybody who ever said and/or thought about saying “US and A” by the way!
Sometimes I really wonder why I bother…
“What’s with this US and A shit”
Its from the movie, Borat..
This is ridiculous. Time and time again these damn court rooms and the law in general don’t cease to piss me off. A computer, on the internet, that had a porn pop-up, ok wait, this is odd because…it happens like a million times a day. They need to take the prosecutors and beat them w/ a switch (those of you who don’t know a switch is a bunch of thin branches held together by tape or rope). And to the parents who filed against the school; you know they were just trying to get paid by suing the school.
Honestly, what parent hasn’t at one time or another had this happen in the privacy of their own home while a child was present; scares the crap out of you but it doesn’t make you a pervert or mean you intended to show them this. Ok enough of a rant but honestly my true hatred for the legal system is that, well, like the famous quote “better 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be incarcerated”, bs, how it really goes is “guilty until proven innocent”. I don’t hate cops because they abuse their power and treat everyone like criminals, i hate them because they represent a bs system of laws that no longer keep the innocent free but instead treat us all like equal criminals and make you worry bout your “freedom”.
I’m from New Zealand (might have to google that too :p ) sure we have our political problems, but they pale in comparison next to USA’s – we don’t have anybody blowing our buildings / subways up, we aren’t at war or invading anybody (we do help clean up the resulting mess) we aren’t on anybodys side, and we sure as hell don’t live in fear of being sent to jail for 40 years for inadvertently spawning pr0n popups.
11 + 9 ?
usa sucks
USA is the greatest country in the whole world! NOOOOT!
Well if she really was looking at porn, but here defense is that kids where looking at new-hair-styles-.com and pop ups where opening. When she went for help nobody jumped and and the teacher who was logged in said don’t log him out and other said to ignore them they happen from time to time.
But this waht makes me think she is getting screwed and everybody ignores that the computer in question was a Microsoft Windows 98 machine running an outdated version of Internet Explorer Web browser (IE 5.0), or that the school’s license for its firewall program expired prior to the date of the alleged incident. Likewise, the machine’s anti-virus software (Cheyenne Software) was expired and it lacked any anti-spyware tools. In short, the Windows 98 computer was completely exposed to the Internet without any kind of protection
You know, I wrote up a huge, really huge response for the New Zealander SoniKalien over there, and then I just decided that instead of arguing the key differences between the U.S. and New Zealand and their position on the global scheme of things, it’ll be much easier to point out that one of the reasons you don’t have anybody blowing your subways up is because you haven’t actually got any (At least not to my knowledge and I didn’t find any mentioning of New Zealand on the Wikipedia’s list of rapid transit systems.) From my point of view, New Zealand doesn’t quite measure up to the U.S. when it comes to the number and scale of the problems facing each country.
Even if she is completely guilty, 40 years for indirectly exposing some high school kids to porn is rediculous.
FFS… up to 40 years for showing porn?
that means all those people at LAN parties are going to jail for a long time haha.
but seriously, you get less time for killing someone in some countries.
I enjoyed reading the replies. but you have to realize that the US is run by a bunch of zealot born-again christian faggots who are out on a rampage of filth and wrong doing. atheists FTW!
‘The vast majority of readers agree that the US has made a name for itself’ also have no idea what they’re talking about. The judgment comes from overblown news stories and secondhand sources who tend to skew the facts and concentrate only on partial points of the event rather than on the whole picture. As I said, this story is a good example of what I’m trying to explain. One uneducated judge living in what can practically be called a village made a really bad call in regard to a local case that has nothing to do with the U.S. domestic policies. Your response? U.S. sucks. Great insight and extremely well-made and compelling argument. Another good example is your Silver Ring Thing reference. Again, I had to google it to know what you’re talking about, and, trust me, an overwhelming majority of Americans would do the same. Chastity vows all around the country? You have got to be kidding me. Just because a couple of hundred of Christian kids decide to abstain from sex until their complete maturation (by the way, I hardly see it as an immoral or even perverse decision, even though I don’t agree with it), it doesn’t mean that the whole country abolished sexual relationships as well. It’s like some of my fellow Americans (and a number of Europeans and Asians as well, to be fair) see a bunch of Muslim fundamentalists as definitive representatives of the whole Muslim population. Generalizations like this can get one in a world of trouble.
I understand you’re living a discontented life, but, again, what country in the world doesn’t have its problems and a degree of discontent among its citizens? Germany, France, and U.K. may provide more sensible social benefits for their people, but they surely have some other issues to deal with as well. Just remember the recent civil unrest situation in the French suburbs if you need any examples of that. Hell, I lived the same life you just described back when I was in Europe.
As for my position, it has nothing to do with mindless preaching. I, plain and simple, just don’t like hearing insincere or otherwise inaccurate comments from people who either don’t pause to see how subjective and personal their judgment is, or, which is much worse, consciously choose to express their biased views without any regard to objective reasoning. No matter where your personal affinities lie, you have to try and get rid of your bias when making a logical argument. Otherwise the person who doesn’t share your view of the world will have no reason to listen to what you have to say.
It’s not that I’m discontented in life, in fact I’m very happy. I have a wife and a child. I’m discontented in my country, and the world’s ignorant viewpoint of it.
I don’t think you were mindlessly preaching either, you were offering objective viewpoints.
I think I spoke the truth for most Americans, even if my view is subjective. Subjective views can still be true, who is closer to the source than someone inside it, someone who lives it?
I understand a lot of countries and peoples have their own problems. It seems as though they think everyone in America is hunky-dory, 1950’s, Leave it to Beaver brainwashed Pleasantville residents. I was simply trying to show what the world sees on television is not the way it is.
I have friends in Slavic countries that think America is a shining land of the rich, happy, powerful. I’m sure to them it is. Pay is very poor where they live, which is why they’ve produced some very great punk bands.