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By Brian Boyko
There is a great controversy on the Web right now over the fate of Connecticut schoolteacher Julie Amero.
Ms. Amero has been convicted of “four counts of risk of injury to a minor, or imparing the morals of a child” and faces up to 40 years in prison in the state of Connecticut.
During a French class that Ms. Amero was substitute teaching, the computer in the classroom showed pornographic images. The prosecution argued that this was a willful act – or at least one that Ms. Amero should be held criminally liable for. Ms. Amero’s defense argued that it was because of spyware, and that Ms. Amero had no say in the matter.
Although the primary purpose of this blog is to discuss enterprise networking and performance, we felt compelled to post this comment and open a dialog about this case. As we all know, networking isn’t just about enterprise networking anymore. Schools – public and private – are increasingly becoming networked as well. Furthermore, we can look forward to (present?) future home networks in which AppleTVs, Xbox360 media centers, and Windows Home Servers are all connected. Before the future arrives, perhaps we should examine some of the issues – to foster network literacy the same way that over the past 10 years our society has needed to foster computer literacy. It is time to take a serious look not only on the network’s effect on the enterprise but on networking’s effect on society as a whole.
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Because this case is controversial, we feel we should share objectively as much information about it as possible – most of the news is reaching the public second or third-hand, through various media publications, each with their own levels of technical knowledge and their own agendas.
The first thing we did was address demands that surfaced on a few Web boards. The question was, why not ask the Connecticut Governor for a pardon?
To find out, we called up the Connecticut Governor’s office, who informed us that unlike many states and unlike the Federal government, the power to pardon does not lie in the hands of the Governor of Connecticut. That authority rests with the Board of Pardons and Paroles. When we called the Board of Pardons and Paroles we learned that a pardon will not be considered until Ms. Amero has exhausted her appeals. A pardon is neither the most optimal nor most expedient solution to rectifying Ms. Amero’s situation, if indeed an injustice has been done.
Additionally, next week we hope to have first-hand commentary from Mr. Herb Horner at Contemporary Computer Consultants, who was an expert witness for the defense in this case, and Detective Mark Lounsbury, who testified for the prosecution in this case.
We have offered them an opportunity to speak, unfiltered and unedited, about this case or others like it. (Because Ms. Amero’s sentencing is not scheduled until March, Detective Lounsbury is not able to speak specifically about the Amero case, however, we did invite him to talk about the investigative methods he used and to speak generally about police procedure in cases like these.)
To this end, we hope to provide an informative service to our readership that will help them better understand the issues involved.
Brian Boyko is editor of Network Performance Daily
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