School-Porn Case Raises Computer, Spyware Questions
As she awaits a possible 40-year prison term, the case of Julie Amero, the substitute teacher in eastern Connecticut convicted of exposing seventh-graders to Internet porn, has gained national attention from school IT administrators. From the start, Amero has protested that she’s innocent, contending that spyware hijacked her classroom computer in explaining the pornographic pop-ups that some seventh-graders at Kelly Middle School saw on Oct. 19, 2004. However, a jury last January convicted Amero on four counts of risk of injury to a minor. She awaits sentencing June 6, having turned down a plea deal in which she could have avoided prison.