Below is an excerpt from an article in the current issue of Windows Secrets Newsletter about the substitute teacher who’s been railroaded as a scapegoat for school district incompetence. Let it serve as both a warning for your personal computer use and as an indication of anarcho-tyranny in pubschool bureaucracy and the so-called “justice” system. *sigh*
I am unsurprised by the school system’s behavior in this travesty of justice. Nor do I find the “justice” system’s actions surprising (think Duke faux “rape” case, Martha Stewart, etc.). But where, pray tell, was the ACLU? Surely such a *cough* high-minded group would at least file an amicus brief when this horrible travesty came to light, given the broad implications affecting Truth, Justice and The American Way of the school system, police and courts’ mishandling of this case. Surely.
Not.
If you find yourself the victim of pop-up ads on a computer, with children in the vicinity, you could face decades in prison.
I wish that I was exaggerating or being sensationalistic, but for Julie Amero this is far too real.
Meet Julie Amero, substitute teacher
There’s a good chance that you’ve already heard something about Julie. She’s perhaps better known as the Connecticut substitute schoolteacher who’s been convicted of “child endangerment.” She now faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison because porn pop-ups appeared on a school computer.
…
There are many points I could make about what’s wrong with her case. But I’ll stick with my core competency and just point out some of the technical flaws.
Flawed technology condemns an educator
The key issues were set in motion before Julie ever arrived to substitute-teach on the day in October 2004 that the pop-ups occurred. The school district had allowed its Web-filtering software support contract to expire, preventing the software from receiving updates. The computer in question was running Windows 98, and the browser in use was IE 6…
Go. Read the whole thing (plus the linked background above).
IMO, the school system, its administrators and IT people, should be the ones facing the possible 40 years in jail, for it was their callous indifference to their responsibilities that appear to be the issue.
But the kind of problem Julie faced is yet another good reason I’ve had the popup protection Opera offers years before it became available in Firefox or (finally!) in IE7, and a reason I practice paranoia concerning spyware and viruses, trojans and worms, Oh! My! _I_ certainly don’t want any site I do not intend to visit–or even sites I DO intend to visit–take control of my computer…
Good UP TO DATE anti-virus software (yes, even in Linux–Clam AV is pretty good, and makes a nice set of “suspenders” to go with Linux’s already pretty good security “belt”) and MANUAL SCANNING of ALL file downloads, good UP TO DATE anti-spyware software (I use FIVE different anti-spyware products on my Windows machines), a good hardware firewall and a strong software firewall combined with responsible surfing/computing habits have kept our lil network free of problems, but some folks are just too lazy and irresponsible to develop habits like that… or–as in the example above–even know (or care) when an irresponsibly mismanaged network can endanger users.
Just a lil Thursday fun stuff… *heh*
Linking back to Diane’s Wednesday OTA post at TTWA. Yeh, it’s a second link-in, Diane. What can I say? 😉
Trackposted to Right Pundits, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, A Blog For All, stikNstein… has no mercy, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.