Julie Amero is a substitute teacher who was arrested for the crime of being present in a classroom equipped with an adware-infected computer that displayed porn pop-up ads. She faces 40 years in prison sentence, and will be sentenced on Friday.
Zan says:
Julie Amero, the Connecticut teacher found guilty exposing children to pornography after popups appeared on her school computer, will face sentencing this Friday, May 18th. Amero, who says that malware on the infected PC was responsible for the popups, could face up to 40 years in jail. Even if she receives no jail time, Amero will be labeled as a sex offender and unable to teach, and be stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
This case gained a lot of publicity earlier in the year, but as the prosecution has delayed sentencing three times, the story has fallen off the radar. The Amero case could have a chilling effect on efforts to get computer into classrooms if teachers are afraid of losing their careers (or freedom) over an infected PC.
Reader comment:
Alex says:
Mark — minor correction — under this statute, she wouldn't be labeled as a sex offender, but she would will have 4 felony counts. Of course, sex offender status could always theoretically be "grandfathered" in to the statute in the future, so there is still that risk.
Previously on Boing Boing:
• Pop-up porn case update
• Take Action: Julie Amero Porn Case
• Teacher faces 40 years for porn in classroom, blames adware
• Teacher faces jail time over "accidental porn" in classroom
