Pop-up Porn Bouffant

I was taken aback by I story I came across on CNN’s website about a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut who potentially faced 40 years in prison for exposing 7^th graders to pornography on a school PC

(See story => http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/13/teacher.porn.ap/index.html )

Mrs. Amero, the substitute teacher, innocently used a classroom PC to send an to email her husband before a class, after receiving permission from a co-teacher. After using the computer, Mrs. Amero left the classroom to use the restroom, leaving the permanent teacher, who granted her access to the PC and some of her students alone in the class. When she returned to the classroom she found her colleague had left and the students were surfing the web. The students had gone to a hairdressing website, when suddenly the PC exploded with hardcore porn pop-ups, which the students saw. For this the teacher went to trial and was convicted.

Okay, several problems here. First, as is the case in most American schools, the PC that was being used in the Middle School was antiquated and not being properly administered by the responsible parties at the school. The school had no firewall software, nor Antivirus or Anti-Spyware applications installed on their Internet connected PC to protect it from the malware that plagues the Internet. Any computer savvy person could tell you virus protection is a must. Furthermore, in a rush to convict Mrs. Amero, the prosecutors didn’t even bother to check the PC in question for viruses … sloppy and unprofessional. I mean, you swab a rape victim for evidence, you check for fingerprints at a crime scene, in the 21^st Century, you check a computer for virus infection in a case like this. Second, based on the article, it seems that the substitute teacher was also cursed by have a jury of ignorant people, who after years of mass media exposure relating to perverts in positions of authority, couldn’t tell a victim of circumstance from Richard Allen Davis.

A story I know of parallels the case above. A friend of mine worked in a Computer Data Center as a Supervisor. His crew consisted of 9 men a 1 woman. One day, the only woman in the environment reported that she was having a problem with her PC. My friend went to investigate and discovered that when he booted the PC he was getting a flurry of gambling pop-ups. Someone had been surfing the Net and picked up a virus on the PC. Not good, but manageable he thought. He ran various anti-virus software on the PC and had some success, but was still getting some very stubborn, but benign, pop-ups. After he ran a third virus-scan on the PC, he managed to kill the gambling pop-ups, but then, with the female employee watching over his shoulder, all hell broke loose … The gambling pop-ups had been acting as a cork, holding back what was really infecting the PC … PORN. Not the run of the mill porn mind you, pop-ups of some of the raunchiest, most violent, perverse stuff he had ever seen. Oral, anal, animals, kids … you name it, it popped up. He furiously clicked away at the pop-ups, attempting to close them, with the employee, eyes bugged out and mouth agape, taking in the pornographic deluge. “Oh my GOD!” the employee shrieked and ran to the other side of office, face bright red, trembling. My friend frantically clicked away, in a hopeless attempt to stop the pop-ups. “Fix my machine! I can’t work like this!!! You need to fix my machine!!!!” In total frustration at not being able to take control of the PC, he yanked the power cord from the wall … a mosaic of woman with dogs, and men with … god knows what … faded as the power was cut.

My friend apologized profusely to his employee, and immediately contacted the Desktop Support of his company. He turned over the PC to them and requested that they reformat the hard drive and rebuild the image on the PC. The Tech told my friend he had some amazing software that would “scour the drive” of any virus or spyware. My friend had his doubts, but went with the Tech’s plan because this was his expertise. A day later the tech returned the PC to the office stating … “My God that was a bitch to clean!”

The PC was setup on the employee’s desk with a clean bill of health. The employee came in, sat at her desk, and booted up her PC. Then from his office, my friend heard a shriek. He ran out to the Operations area and found his female employee, bright red, apoplectic, with an accusatory finger pointed at him, while on her PC monitor he observed a veritable pop-up “fireworks display” of gay porn, animal porn, kiddy porn, exploding across the screen.

“You did this on purpose!!!!!” she shrieked at him as his BP went through the ceiling and thoughts of termination for breaching the company’s sexual harassment policy swirled in his brain. As a reactive response, he yanked the power cord from the wall, tore the CPU, with the peripherals attached, from the lady’s desk, dragged them across the Operations area and threw them on the floor in his office. To make a long story short, my friend ordered a new PC for the employee and watched as the Desktop Tech reformatted, then degaussed the old hard drive and sent it out for destruction.

The moral is, what happened to Mrs.Amero could happen to anyone. PC’s in a public environment are susceptible to misuse and in Public Schools, are often poorly managed. It would be a travesty if she were to spend 40 years in jail for this. She was merely an unwitting victim of technology.

And, as for how the PC became contaminated in the first place, ask the janitor. My friend did.

FogBelter out…….