School child-porn case a witch hunt

Could the prosecution of this teacher been fueled by a handfull of soccer Moms who stated they wanted their kids protected? Probably so...
And rightfully so... But why not put the blunt of the blame on the School Board for not ensuring that all broadcasts on 'THEIR' School system was protected with the highest state of the art software designed to stop intrusions into the schools system.

If the School Board should be held equally accountable for not protecting the teachers.

Teachers have rights as well as the students.

No wonder our School system across America is in such a bad state of affairs. If something goes wrong, blame a teacher.

And as far as her Attorney goes he should be disbarred! He did a lousy job of defending this women. As an Attorney it is your obligation to defend the client to the best of your ability under the color of law. This guy failed to call experts in to testify as to other incidents similar to the teacher's happening across the US. I believe he stated something like 'I didn't think it neccessary.' What a major screw up that was.

I hope this Teacher is granted an appeal and ultimately wins her case.

The school's employees who were involved in the witch hunt of this teacher should be ashamed of themselves.

Hopefully, a student won't ever accuse one of them of some illegal act.
I don't think they would like what would happen!

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I'm curious if the school district had the browser's Content Advisor feature enabled. If they did not, then the school district shares in the blame with Amero. As for holding Amero responsible for not putting her coat over the monitor or taking steps to shield the students from the porn I'd be curious to see how many jurors would have done so in that same situation. I've seen when porno pop ups take over a computer. It happens quickly and unexpectedly. The computer user is usually in shock for a while before they can react to what has taken over their system. I believe Amero should not be charged. Instead, I believe the prosecutor of the Amero case should be prosecuted for wasting tax payer money.

You Americans are too much.
Dog bites man, sue man for being too close to the dog.....
If I were a teacher, I would demand ALL computers be removed from my classroom before the same thing happened to me. Maybe books too, you never know...
Anyway, thanks for the laugh. We, north of the border, are really enjoying this.

put a coat over the computer?

somebody lives in the dark ages how would that stop them from seeing anything if all the computers started poping up porn sites, how many coats would she need to wear to protect the kids. the responsablity resides with the school administaters and the person that calls himself the computer tech. If he couldn't stop it what makes anybody think she could've. The Tech could have prevented this whole thing by simply installing a program like " Net Nanny " and a few other programs like " Highjack This " it's done all over the place so why was it not done at that school, maybe Tech. ain't so Tech.

I've been watching and reading about this case, since it started.
Amero knows nothing about computers. She probably didn't know how to turn the thing off in the first place.
Amero went to the teachers and principal to ask them what she should do. They told her to just turn the computer away from the kids, and don't worry about it. No one came to her rescue to turn the computer off!

She was more upset about the matter than the School Administration was.

I think both she and her lawyer believed she would never be prosecuted over this fiasco.

If I were the parents, I'd go after the Faculty, the IT personel (if they even have one), and the Administration of the School.
They are the ones responsible for not keeping all the computers up to date or free of malware and viruses.

Furthermore, there are so many drive by malware ads all over the place. You can even get them from a search result in Google.
My husband downloaded an inocent looking automic clock to keep the time on his computer accurate. OMG! there was so much porn and several more malware programs on his computer, it took me 3 days to clear it out. He even got a folder full of "favoites" for porn sites auto installed to his browser. There were folders for every type of porn you could think of, with folders under each of them!

It's almost impossible to keep it off a computer that is used by so many people.

I am thoroughly discusted with those Jurors!

How can a substitute teacher who tried to get help from her superiors be held at fault for internet pop up porn? If you read the details of the case, she is a scapegoat. The police didn't even look at or test the computer.

There are many factors involved with internet access and malware and many layers of administration and technology personnel to address. One substitute teacher cannot be held responsible for something that occured well beyond her control.

I cannot believe that she was convicted and God help us all if she goes to prison for this. That would be horrible. If that does happen, our teacher shortage will for sure increase since no one will want to teach a computer class for risk of personal liability.

As the Technology Director for a small school system with only 3600 students I can only say that the buck stops here at my desk. I would and should be the one on trial if it happened here. It is and has been my responsiblility, since the first access to the internet was granted in this school system to be sure that everyone, student and staff alike were protected to the best of our ability. Even if it was only to provide the proper training of how to handle a situation like this. I first hit a porno takeover on camput over 6 years ago. There is no excuse for this occuring today and not receiving an immediate response. I realize it is a constant battle but the failure to respond to the incident both privately and publicly was a failure of administration not staff. The teacher's inability to handle the situation would be a direct reflection on me. It would indicate that I had failed to properly do my job in training and monitoring.
Mike Hurley
Director of Technology
Hart County Schools
Hartwell, Georgia

Wouldn't the prosecutor have had to prove criminal intent? That is, that Mrs. Amero intentionally placed the objectionable images herself, or had a computer expert do it for her?

Wouldn't a well trained software technician be able to tell if the teacher herself were responsible for adding the images?

I'd also like to know something more about Ms. Amero's background. Was it pristine or had she been a trouble maker? Had she ever been disciplined and, if so, for what? Was she previously respected by the School Board and her coworkers? Was she considered a good teacher or just mediocre? Had she shown any signs of mental instability?
Also, how long did it take for her to block the images from her students? I doubt that she just stood there dumbly for 15 minutes and watched the scenes with them.
It seems to be the assumption of the School Board and the State that "it happened on her watch, therefore she must be punished." I think there's more to it than that. If she had been a good teacher with an unblemished record, then my assumption would be that the Board was looking for a scapegoat in order to get out of an embarrassing situation and take the heat off themselves. Expedient but cowardly.
Besides, The Norwich Bulletin stated that “from August to October 2004, the district's filtering system didn't regularly add newly discovered pornographic sites to its restricted Web sites database.” The incident took place in October 2004.
It is the Constitutional right of every person in this country to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. How could the jury be so certain on such flimsy evidence? How could a judge sentence a woman to forty years imprisonment on such a questionable verdict? Was the district afraid of being sued and sacrificed this woman’s life to the gods in exchange for their skins? Was the judge a member of the “moral majority” who was attempting to make an example?

It looks like the great state of Connecticut is about to burn a witch like its neighbor to the north.