Porn pop-ups on a classroom computer- instructor found guilty may spend up to 40 years in jail-or may be aquitted in a new trial. Read on (or click the link above for the full story):
WASHINGTON: 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...
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...
Pupils, some of them as young as 12, told police that the computer had been left on for several hours and they had seen men and women engaged in oral sex.
Discussion: What are the implications of this trial? How might this situation apply in a fire station or other public facility? What about a fire service training classroom? Or even during a public education program!? Is there a different standard for an adult classroom? How might the outcome of this case impact your job?
Certainly the outcome of the new trial will be interesting! (In the meantime- note to self: turn on the pop-up blocker!)
