Teacher Found Guilty of Endangering Kids Due to Spyware

nursegirl writes "Norwich, Conn seventh grade teacher, Julie Amero has been convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after her classroom PC displayed pornographic pop-ups in class. While an expert for the defendant said he had discovered spyware on her PC that had been downloaded from a hairstyling site, the local police investigator claimed that the spyware had been downloaded from actively visiting porn sites. Amero testified that she had told four other teachers and the assistant principal about the popups, but received no assistance. The school's internet filtration software was not working because it's license had expired. Amero faces up to forty years in prison."

Comments

Re:The other sad thing.

[timmarhy]

i used to work in pathology, and the answer is ALL OF THEM.

Its, not it's

[yangsta]

Its license. Its.

Seriously...

Re:The case probably has merit.

[Caiwyn]

I think you may be right, and the clue is referenced in the story:

while substituting for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School

She's a substitute, which means she was only in that class a day or so. For her to have installed spyware and be duped into clicking on it multiple times may be feasible, but is it likely? Besides when you read TFA, the investigator also points out that the jury viewed a list of sites accessed, many of which could not be reached without actively clicking on the ads:

On a projected image of the list of Web sites visited while Amero was working, Lounsbury pointed out several highlighted links.

"You have to physically click on it to get to those sites," Smith said. "I think the evidence is overwhelming that she did intend to access those Web sites."

Among the sites Amero visited were meetlovers.com and femalesexual.com, along with others with more graphic names.

Hitting one or two could be a mistake, but several? It really sounds more like she was surfing for pr0n in the classroom, and using "teh spyware" as an excuse. And of course, Slashdot fell for it. Again.

Re:For the benefit of the vast majority...

[Dunbal]

How old are we talking about here?

      Around 12-13 years old.

malware can drop child porn , not just reg. pr0n

[Bananatree3]

This dude apparently had kiddie porn found on his computer(that most likely got there via virii/trojans) and was facing a sex offender label/jail time for it. The defendent's family hired a computer expert who analyzed the said computer's harddrive, and found many, many backdoor programs that would have allowed hackers into the comp. While the article doesn't exactly give technical details, it does make a good point in that this country's prosecutors/legal system are well behind the times in terms of technology issues.

And, this isn't the only case where this has happened before (2003)

Re:you know....

[jawtheshark]

It's not a thing in western society. You probably will not be surprised that I live in Europe. Sex isn't as demonized as it is is in the United States. We have commercials that are considered "raunchy" by Americans. Softporn is easy to get on TV and I remember my dad allowed us to watch movies with erotic-but-really-not-much-to-see stuff. He also had his own porn collection which was not well hidden. He damn well knew that we knew where it was.

These days porn probably is mostly digital, and I could protect my own children by encrypting all stuff. Most probably, I will not and leave some harmless nudie pics around for them to find. The "harder stuff" (like blowjobs, actual penetration, nothing *really* nasty because I don't have that, etc...) will be encrypted until I find out the search for them on the Internet.

Re:Protecting the kids

[a_nonamiss]

Suing a teacher for something like that is unbelievable.

The REALLY important point here. They're not suing her. They've convicted her of a criminal felony There is a HUGE difference. Most importantly, she faces prison time. Hard time. This isn't 50 hours picking up trash on the side of the highway. She will likely go to pound-me-in-the-ass prison. She will be placed among society's worst. Then when she gets out, she'll have to register as a sex offender so that she can be publicly rediculed and forced not to live near schools, churches or daycare centers. In addtion, wherever she moves, all residents within a mile of her home will get letters telling that a pervert is living near them, so be sure to keep their kids locked up. On every job application, she will have to list herself as a perverted sexual deviant, and she really stands little chance of ever having a normal life.

The most important distinction, however, is that it's not some hairbrained idiot at the school that decided to levy these charges. Anybody can sue anyone at any time for any reason. No, this charge was levied by the people. By people representing you and me. The real responsibility for this miscarriage of justice rests on the prosecutor that was elected by the people, and who decided to prosecute this case. He or she needs to be held accountable for ruining the life of another human being.

Don't talk about this like it's something that could really suck for this woman. It already does suck. She's already been convicted. Sure, she can appeal, and based on what I know from this case, she stands a chance of winning, but that black mark is on her record forever. Appeals are not based on the merit of the original conviction, but rather on the fact that she had a fair trial. Until you are convicted, you are innocent until proven guilty. Once you are convicted, you are guilty until proven innocent. It's a whole different ballgame.

As someone who regularly uses a computer in front of children as an educational tool, and as an IT professional, this story scares the hell out of me. Although I know how to keep my computer free of spyware, there isn't one person on /. that hasn't been stuck in a random porn loop that they themselves didn't cause. I don't visit bad sites, and I don't open up bad emails, but more than once I have had a porn loop pop up on my PC. Now, after this story, I am seriously faced with the prospect of never using the computer as an educational tool again.

Re:you know....

[AlphaLop]

Actually they do. I work in the prison system and there are two types of sentences inmates get. Concurrent and Consecutive, funny that they both start with "Con" but I digress.

I frequently see their sentence structure on their file and it is not uncommon to see an inmate with a sentence like:

murder-Life with CC

murder-Life with CC

UDW (use of a deadly weapon enhancement) 48-72 months CS

So, what this would work out to be like is this. The inmate would have the 2 life sentences running at the same time, He gets his parole on both. They were running concurrently so they are both complete. NOW he starts serving the 48-72 month sentence that was consecutive to the initial sentence.

It does not happen this way all the time, but it is quite common.

So, She could conceivably wack the kids and the idiot judge that actually let this go to trial in the first place and serve less than 40 years.

This scenario is extremely unlikely but within the realm of possibility.

Re:The other sad thing.

[RattFink]

What sort of medical imaging device is connected to the greater Internet, rather than a secure WLAN
of some sort, if it actually needs networking?

You would be surprised. A lot of imaging in smaller hospitals and clinics are read by radiologists off-site though a service firm and the reports are sent to the doctor via email. It would be insanely expensive for a clinic or small hospital with an Xray and a CAT scan that is used perhaps 3-4 times a day to hire a radiologist.