By now you might have heard of Julie Amero, the middle school teacher who has been convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child. If you haven’t heard, all of this happened because porn pop-ups appeared on a class room computer. Just about every computer expert has said this was due to spyware and various malware present on the system but according to the courts, it is her fault. Things may be about to change.

The DA’s office has been getting lots of bad press and bad press is not a good thing in politics, maybe they’ll learn a lesson this time. The District attorney has been quoted as saying “things could very well change” between now and Thursday’s hearing. It seems they are reconsidering their approach to the matter.

At one point they were even trying to blame her for not securing the computer. Really? Since when did it become the user’s job to secure their own system (except at home). No, that responsibility lies with the IT department and in this case, they failed. If you want someone to prosecute, grab the Sys Admin and put him/her on trial because that’s who is responsible in this case.

It all boils down to a lazy school IT department that is either not knowledgeable or just doesn’t care how open their computers and school network is. Another problem is that politicians don’t know the difference between spyware and viruses or how each work. I don’t even want to know how much spyware was on that system but I’d bet dollars to donuts there was more spyware on it than legitimate programs.

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 9:11 am under Legal.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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