Teacher's porn pop-up case is dropped

This is a sick perversion of justice. Americans everywhere should be sickened and ashamed that their system can produce this.

Law and justice are two completely distinct things. If in the application of law there is justice, well, good, but that is just an accident not a consequence.

My wife (who is a lawyer) keeps explaining to me that a lawyer's job is to represent their client in the best possible way - guilt or innocence are irrelevant. 

For the prosecutor, that is to show the accused as guilty, for the defense, to show the accuse as innocent (according to the terms of the law). 

Fair and balanced presentation of information is not on any one's mind. Each side tries to eliminate or omit information and evidence detrmintal to their case and present only evidence supporting their case.

One thing lawyers do not do is lie (well, technically, they are not supposed to), however, deliberate ommision the other side of the story is par for the course - since there is no incentive to present evidence that is detrimental to your argument.

It seems the school's inability to provide even the most basic security for the computer system has caused a classroom of children to be exposed to questionable material and for one person to have her life ruined.

I could see her being awarded a million or two. The real question is why a bad cop is still on the job, why is an incompetent school administration still employed and why is that excuse for a tech department not walking the street?

Not only has justice not been served, but the guilty have gone free.

GZ

But...

[quote]
With evidence of errors mounting, Amero's conviction was eventually overturned and a new trial planned. But in deference to her declining health—since the conviction Amero had been treated for stress and heart problems—prosecutors, professing their confidence in her guilt even at the end, decided to drop the charges in exchange for a fine and a plea. 
[/quote]

I can almost hate the prosecutors in this case.

They know they had no case yet they still claim that they did. The only reason Julie settled is because the stress of being considered a demoness and child-corruptor was too much for her.

Did you know she miscarried during the course of this fracas, ostensibly because of the stress?

The prosecutors and the school's staff are disgusting.

Why they couldn't just give a big ol' American "my bad" and drop it, I'll never know.

Oh wait, yes I do. Pride, perhaps? Covering their own bases, perhaps?

I've been following this case since it started and the ending is anti-climactic and a bid sad.

Julie is throwing in the towel because she doesn't want to die from this stupid, overblown accusation.

She admits no guilt, but the prosecutors still say she's guilty and that they could prove it, if she had given them the chance. Save face.

I don't hate them. Pity them... I should. But if given the chance to punch each of them in the face with no repercussions, I'd gladly do it.

So maybe the "evidence" cleared her of all charges. However, the situation that occurred was highly IMMORAL and DAMAGING TO THE YOUNG CHILDREN. A computer, being amoral, can't reasonably be blamed. Therefor it follows naturally that it was incompetence on the part of the teacher that formalized the actual occurrence of the situation.

Come on...this is not a more poor justice system, than any other justice system on this planet. There will always be cases of bad appels. I feel sorry for the teacher.

So, here we have another case of MS Windows destroying lives. If I were her, I'd get the IT firm that testified on her behalf to sue Microsoft for allowing the install of the rootkit, for making the default security of the machine depend on expensive AV.

The school is clearly getting robbed financially and this poor woman clearly got the shaft because she was using a machine that's not built to protect users from themselves. They should have paid the extra for Mac, or Ubuntu with a service license.

And prob'ly a lawyer. 

Certainly favors the idea that ritualist formalizations
create their own reality. 

1. The "immorality" of showing porn, as opposed to 
murder and mayem on the evening tv, to children is a dodgy position at best.

2. The functional responsibility lies with the purveyors of substandard software. But that would be to hold Colt or Browning (Ross, anyone?) liable for a gun that blows up in your hand (or bridges and carparks that fall down, or...).

There's got to be more to this story than meats
the eye. Was she teaching evolution or something?

~D


So if I hack into your PC and leave behind some piece of spyware that when power point is fired up so is a bunch of porn links and banners its not the PCs fault its yours? Im pretty sure that would make it mine and thus the person that made the spyware would be at fault. Not the teacher. Justice not served at all. And the LAW should have enough brains to know the difference. Gross misconduct and should be overturned with teacher getting her credit back along with 4 years of subteach pay. She should be compensated.

There is elements in the judicial system that advocated legitimacy of pornography in the media while manically [bi polar] slaps it's negativity around.

As long this will go on, things like these will happen over and over.

Get the porn out of the media and save energy save the earth, put diversity on other stuff.

Why doesn't the school take some responsibility? After all the security seems to a little lacking at best. 
And how about having the educators educated in computer usage, I mean when your child can come home and show you things about the computer that you didn't know, where did they learn that? Maybe in the ally behind the school. their friends hidden wireless netbook, right? You have watch out for defrag.

Justice served??? what are you talking about?
>>However, the situation that occurred was highly IMMORAL and DAMAGING TO THE YOUNG CHILDREN.

How is it immoral that virus pops up porn pics? ...and now, what the hell does this teacher have anything to do with that virus and being guilty for it?

>>A computer, being amoral, can't reasonably be blamed. 

So, then you blame the teacher? how come? do you have to blame someone at all? can't it be someone else's fault? like the one who made the virus? or the IT stuff that didn't get the apropriate protection? can't it be a mistake with no guity?

>>Therefor it follows naturally that it was incompetence on the part of the teacher that formalized the actual occurrence of the situation.

Ok... see, your logic doesn't work, it DOESN'T follow naturally, and even if she was an incompetent PC user, it doesn't make her a horrible make-children-watch-porn, at all!
Go to church and pray for your sins, you christian zealot, i BET you are extremely religious.
Peace from Uruguay.

"Justice has most definitely not been served."

The site appears to have missed off "in my naive, sensationalist, shallow and ill thought out opinion."

If she was hit by a police car in pursuit, would you arrest her for perverting the course of justice?

A little extreme, but that's the leap of logic, to me, you are suggesting.

As a former high school teacher (chemistry, physical, biology) I can tell you it's most likely the lady was hired under the most lenient of specifications. In other words, schools are so strapped for funds, they will likely hire anyone who can meet very minimal standards. Very minimal, very slack standards.

It's absolutely incredible this woman didn't have even the most rudimentary skills to know to simply unplug the monitor from it's power supply or cover the screen. Wait, what am I saying, I'm still trying to get a lawyer/engineer friend of mine to understand the difference between shut down and restart. That being said, the dear lady needs to learn: "If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough".

If she's really this inept do you, as a parent, want her "teaching" your kids? I don't. But no matter, she'll just get a job in a daycare center or home for the elderly and exhibit her skills and attitudes there. Most likely work with old women ... they might have an appreciation of her doing deep research on hair styles on the web. Particularly those of the bluer tint.


US prosecutors have bigger pumpkin heads than our "we have chips on our shoulder trigger happy" police state cops do. The had to get on something, it was a matter of pride to the hacks. How dare she not get convicted we have to destroy her life somehow is their way. This is a typical mentality for many of these hacks who have power that is basically unchecked. You read stories all the time of cops shooting someone about 100x and they get away with it but let Joe Smoe shoot a robber in his own house and put 4 or 5 bullets in him then its prosecution time for excessive force. 
Fact, the USA has more laws on the books than any other country.
Fact, The so called free USA has more people per capita in jail than any other country in the world.
This tells me the land of the free is not so free.
Ohio, USA

Someone who doesn't know how to turn off a monitor (let alone forcibly turn off the PC) probably shouldn't be teaching an IT class (granted she was a subbie, but still...). That aside, I have every sympathy for her. I hope she starts a lawsuit – with a better lawyer!

What disturbs me along with the entire case in general is that the cop lied ("mis"leading statements) or, portraying himself as an expert that he obviously was NOT, made completely unsubstantiated statements highly damaging to the innocent person's case. That is all too often par for the course these days.

...back in grade 6 (age 10-12), the teacher brought in a video he had taped off of tv (a breach of copyright, of course it seemed ok, but I have a feeling the MAFIAA would say trying to teach kids is wrong unless they get paid first, but I digress). The video was playing, the teacher left the class (he did that alot, he smoked like a chimney), and as we watched this rather normal movie, suddenly the movie cut out, and we were left with, you guessed it, porn. It was just citytv softcore porn, but still, pretty awesome for a grade 6 class. After about 5-10 minutes, the teacher came back, and we all had a good laugh at his expense. 
He was never fired, forced to take a leave of absence, or anything like that. I guess people used common sense, that it was an accident, and not sufficient to spoil a career. 

I feel terrible for this poor woman, she was a victim, and she did her best to rectify the situation. It was the school boards fault for not having up to date security measures, and not properly training their employees. They are the ones whose heads should be rolling, not this poor teacher. 
The American mindset (not all of them, of course, but a good number) is just so bewilderingly foolish, it makes me quesy. 
America: Where its ok to be as violent as you like (the more violent, the better), but at the slightest hint of sexuality, head for the hills. Makes sense, ya, for sure

ChemC

You obviously don't realize that your inferences into the skill of a teacher by their IT skill are complete garbage.

You, sir, are and idiot :\

You have a point in that being inept at IT shouldn’t preclude her from teaching other topics, but wouldn’t you agree that she shouldn’t have been supervising IT lessons? Is it right to risk having someone such as her ensuring a kid’s PC isn’t showing immoral material

"You, sir, are and idiot" – a classic IT snafu :c)

We all come across computer incompetent people. It's the rule more than the exception.

They refuse to learn or change. These people are annoying and do not deserve our pity or even help when they have trouble with a misbehaving PC.

So she lost her teaching qualifications. Not the worst thing that could have happened. It would have thrown that PC out the window and pretended I never possessed. Then I would say, "well PCs in classrooms with children are bound to break". Then laugh with my mates over a beer while I show them the video I took of the flying laptop.

I wonder if the $100 was the cost of a UN laptop destined to be porn clogged in Africa. Like they need our techno trash.