Julie Amero was a substitute teacher of a seventh grade class at Kelly Middle school in Norwich, Connecticut. Now Ms. Amero is facing up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of risk of injury to a minor after several of the students in her class witnessed pornographic pop-ups.
According to the Norwich Bulletin, Ms. Amero had no criminal record, had undergone extensive background checks that included fingerprinting and had taught at Kelly for 1 1/2 years without incident.
Have you ever experienced pop-ups "gone mad" on a computer? Can you imagine the panic mode of trying to shut them down? When faced with such an overwhelming situation, would you be clear-thinking enough to know what to do with the computer? Is Ms. Amero a computer teacher?
There is a lot more to this story, including a rather strange posting at ComputerWorld by Preston Gralla, in which he akins the defense of Ms. Amero to the "Twinkie defense". It appears that Mr. Gralla is looking for attention, digging up random information without completing proper research. If he had, he would have known that the "Twinkie defense" is an urban legend. There goes any credibility to anything Mr. Gralla has to write about.
Alex Eckelberry, president, Sunbelt Software, provided background information and an excellent explanation of what can happen to a computer as obviously infected as the one in the classroom where Ms. Amero was substitute teaching. Mr. Eckelberry has offered Sunbelt Software's forensic services to the defense on a pro-bono basis for use in appeal. Bravo, Alex!
See Alex Eckeberry's posts at: Dig the story
If you live in Connecticut, contact your state representatives and point them to Alex' posts linked above.
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06-11-2007, 04:20 PM
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