Miscarriage of justice

[bob3160]

IMHO David it would stop all the infighting. Plain and Simple.
Besides, we've already been told and all know that a forum isn't a democracy.

[DavidR]

That is always going to be right those who pay the piper call the tune Alwil, but they exercise their power with due care and consideration. When done like that IMHO anonymity isn't required by a moderator.

Any direct attack on a moderator would obviously passed the the administrators who gave that moderator the position and I believe if it were deemed an unjust personal attack they are more than capable of handing out ban(anna)s as has been mentioned in the past.

I don't recall any forums that I have visited on occasion that felt the need to have their moderators remain anonymous.

So aside from the fact this is going off the main topic of this thread I will call it a day.

[bob3160]

So aside from the fact this is going off the main topic of this thread I will call it a day.

Some things never change  So will I.

[FreewheelinFrank]

An update on the case via the Sunbelt blog:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/46925/

A thorough forensic examination of the computer was carried out but disallowed in court:

Horner's analysis of Amero's hard drive cast doubt on Lounsbury's conclusions. Horner found that the computer had been infected with malware before she arrived.

"She was set up days or weeks before she ever sat down," Horton said.

Here are just a few of the red flags Horton discovered in course of his laborious forensic reconstruction: Anti-virus software triggered security alerts as soon as he started copying the hard disk for testing. The computer's Norton activity log showed that by the time Amero came to Kelly, her computer was already infected with spyware from notorious websites including marketscore.com and new.net.

One piece of spyware had been already been tracking the computer for about a month.

Horner also discovered that someone, presumably the computer's regular user, had been accessing eHarmony.com before Amero's visit. As he noted, dating sites are notorious for spreading porn-related adware.

Another program called Pasco showed that malware had automatically redirected Amero's browser. Horner stressed that this particular form of hijacking is invisible to ComputerCOP Pro.

On Oct. 19, someone did an online job search shortly after 8:00 a.m., activating several different malware apps. At approximately 8:15 a.m., someone accessed www.hair-styles.org, Horner suspects student involvement, in part because the next visit was to Crayola's homepage. Over the next several minutes, still more malware came alive, most likely triggered by the hair site.

The user kept surfing, and by this point, "crap was pouring into the computer at the speed of electricity," Horner said. The real point of no return was when the computer received a huge porn-filled Java file. From that point on, the machine was locked in an endless porn loop.

Note that Amero's class started around 9 a.m. Neither the prosecutor nor detective Lounsbury was able to tell AlterNet whether the room had been locked before class, or exactly what time Amero sat down at her desk.

At trial, it emerged that the school IT department offered no protection against obscene content or invasive software. The Kelly Middle School's firewall license had expired, leaving the whole system unguarded. To make matters worse, Amero was working on a very old Gateway PC running Windows 98, an extremely vulnerable setup.

"Anyone could send anything they wanted to any computer on the site," Horner said.

In the course of his investigation, Horner became convinced of Amero's innocence. After she was convicted, he sent a letter to her attorney offering his services pro bono for her upcoming appeal.

"This whole trial was so unfair," Horner said. "When Julie was convicted, I went home that night. I was eating dinner, and I started crying. I just cried my eyes out. This was a total travesty of justice."

[FreewheelinFrank]

Norwich schools have a p0rn history....
Frank Krasicki, a teacher (who actually has taught in Norwich in the past) has been covering the Amero scandal on his blog, and he's pissed.

And now he's found out something pretty interesting:

    I just searched the Bulletin for the word porn and came up with two hits that indicate that in June of 2004 the Griswold Middle school had children printing out graphic materials and that hard drives were seized containing pornography.

    In fact there are so many porn stories during that period it looks as though it were a local cottage industry.

    This indicates that both the public, the school board, the authorities, and the law KNEW there was a problem in Windham long before Julie Amero set foot in a classroom. For the responsible parties this suggests criminal negligence in not upgrading EVERY school's anti-virus and anti-piracy software. Furthermore, by not providing policy guidance, procedural steps to take, and so on EVERY TEACHER in Windham county was being put at risk.

    IMO, Norwich is going to have a LOT of explaining to do.


Good for you Frank.

Folks -- this issue has still failed to get national media attention. If you have friends in high places, now is the time to alert them to this travesty. They can contact me or others covering the case. We need to get major people involved here.

The appeals process is not a certain one, and there's a real chance she's going to prison. And that would be a disaster for a whole lot of reasons.

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/norwich-schools-have-p0rn-history.html

[FreewheelinFrank]

Researchers led by the head of a Florida anti-spyware firm aim to recreate what caused a Connecticut school's classroom computer to start displaying pornographic pop-ups in October 2004, an incident that recently led to four felony convictions for the substitute teacher involved.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11440/1

[OrangeCrate]

^,

Thanks for keeping this alive Frank, interesting update.

The word appears to be out now. I notice there are quite a few articles dedicated to this story (via a search of Google News). This is grassroots advocacy at it's finest!

When the dust settles, and the teacher's conviction is overturned, I'd hate to be the Norwich School Board. Can you imagine the civil lawsuit for damages this teacher is going to file?

[DavidR]

Not to mention that it is they who should be in the dock on the same or similar charges.

[bob3160]

The following may not be a miscarriage of justice but it certainly is a travesty.  :'(
http://mlranm.blogspot.com/

[bob3160]

The following may not be a miscarriage of justice but it certainly is a travesty.  :'(
http://mlranm.blogspot.com/

Here is the whole story of what happened to Amanda

[FreewheelinFrank]

For over two years now Julie has been the subject of many misconceptions as to what really happened in 2004. What many people do not understand is that the “Children’s Internet Protection Act” is a Federal Law enacted by Congress in December 2000. The FCC issued rules implementing CIPA in early 2001.
In part the law requires Schools and libraries to have policies and technology “IN PLACE” to block or filter internet access to pictures that are a) obscene, b) child pornography, c) are harmful to minors, for computers that are accessed by minors.
There is more, but you get the idea. It is not the substitute teacher’s responsibility to put these controls in place. It is the BoE’s responsibility. By their own admission, the Norwich BoE did not have these protections in place for a number of months / years?? No one except the IT director and his boss Pam Aubin really knows at this point how long the system was unprotected. It is with no surprise that the Norwich BoE has done everything in its power to make sure that the substitute teacher was arrested and brought to justice for this crime. Someone’s head had to go on the block, for if the parents of the Norwich children knew that is was their administrators that they so whole heartily placed their faith in to protect the children’s morals had so deceived them, what would be next.

Defending Julie against this gross abortion of justice has been very expensive. Up to this point, a valid defense fund was not required, but we have used up most of out life’s savings and we are coming up to sentencing in less than four weeks. We are hoping to bond Julie out of jail while she awaits her appeal. I have established a pay pal account in Julie’s name. Many of you have asked how you can help, now is the time. Please visit the site below and contribute what you can. All donations will be utilized exclusively for Julie’s defense. Any remaining contributions will be donated to organizations that are dedicated to vindicating unjustly accused victims of technology.

http://julieamer.blogspot.com/

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070120/OPINION/701200303/1014

[FreewheelinFrank]

Some new links on the case:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/434

http://eset.com/threat-center/blog/?p=42

http://region19.blogspot.com/

http://www.vitalsecurity.org/

This is what Julie is up against:

http://bulletineducationblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/enough.html

According to the journalist who covered the case for the local paper: "Here are the facts: Amero showed graphic pornography to up to 10 children in a Kelly Middle School class, according to a police investigation."

The facts of the case as revealed in the links above are that the computer was plagued by porn pop-ups because of neglect by the school administration (they had neglected to update security or content filtering software) and that Julie actively prevented students from viewing the pop-ups. Latest evidence suggests that the computer screen was not even visible to students while seated...

Julie will be sentences on 2 March.

Support can be expressed here:

http://julieamer.blogspot.com/index.html

Make a small donation to the defence fund if you can or just leave a message of support.

[bob3160]

Latest update on the wrongful death of Amanda Piggott.

[DavidR]

There is a big 'lead piece' '  Pop-up ads can land you in jail,' in the Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 97 • 2007-02-22.

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070222/

[FreewheelinFrank]

A hoax or true? Either way, I think somebody knows exactly what happened that day...

http://idiocracy.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/julie-amero-and-the-porn-pop-ups-the-secret-story/