outrageous miscarriage of justice here in Connecticut.
In short, Julie Amero, 40, was a substitute teacher in Norwich two years ago. A public computer in the classroom where she was assigned as a substitute teacher one day experienced an endless loop of popup ads, some for porn sites with nude pictures, caused by malware installed on an unprotected system running Windows 98 and an old version of IE. She was a total computer novice who thought clicking the red "X" in the popup window would make the windows go away. Instead, as we all know, it just spawned more popups. The ONLY instruction she was given was to NOT turn off the computer. She was a total computer novice and had no idea what to do aside from clicking the "X" to close the browser window. When she asked other teachers (including the school's computer teacher) they told her it was no big deal, that it happened all the time. She reported the incident to the assistant principal at the end of the day who also said not to worry about it.
Photo credit: Fred Beckham/AP
Only a handful students even saw the pictures that flashed on the screen. The monitor was turned away from the class.
The Norwich prosecutor convinced the jury that Julie Amero was some kind of sex-crazed pregnant porn-fan who deliberately spent her day as a substitute teacher surfing porn sites in front of students. She had what appears to be well-meaning yet incompetent counsel, someone who was as technology ignorant as she is. The 6-member jury was not allowed to hear most testimony of defense technology experts. Julie now been convicted of four counts of felony injury to a minor and can be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. Her special education degree is useless. Her life has, quite literally, been destroyed by an overreaction to a handful of adolescents seeing a handful of images of naked people for a few seconds.
I spoke with Julie and her husband Wes a few days ago. They had just been interviewed by an AP reporter and were hopeful that national news about her case would help her gain public support. The AP story hit the wires today. John Christofferson's piece has been picked up by at least two hundred papers around the country and may get TV coverage today. Julie has also been contacted by national TV programs, but has been advised to decline on-camera interviews until after her sentencing in March.
Julie's case really hit home with me, having taught in public schools for nearly a decade. I know that substitute teachers usually get no technology training at all. For the Norwich community to have overreacted so insanely over a handful of 7th graders seeing a few flashes of naked bodies on the screen of a computer that Julie had no responsibility for seems like a cartoonish modern day witch-hunt to me, fed by hysteria over risks to minors from the internet, widespread ignorance about technology, and sensationalism in the media about the handful of women teachers nationally who have been accused or convicted of having sex with students.
I spoke with Julie and Wes Volle, her husband, after I saw that someone had started a blog in her name. Wes and Julie confirmed that this site is legitimate and that they have started a legal defense fund for Julie. I invited Julie and Wes to live-blog with us here at MLN, which they agreed to do soon.
Talking with Julie, I found her version of events to be believable and heartwrenching. She and Wes hope to appeal her conviction, but are struggling just to pay their mortgage with their existing legal bills and Julie unable to work. They've contacted a number of attorneys about the case but have not yet found expert counsel willing to take the case pro bono or at any cost that would be affordable to them. At the end of our hour-long conversation, I attempted to lighten the mood by asking about her baby. After all, I had read in news and blog reports that she was pregnant at the time of the incident, and I assumed her baby would be one of few happy aspects of Julie's life.
Well, I really put my foot in it. Experiencing overwhelming stress after her arrest on felony charges, Julie miscarried. To make this tragedy even worse, Julie had been fighting infertility for years, and after investing thousands of dollars in fertility treatments, this was the only time Julie and Wes had succeeded in conceiving. Two years after losing that much-wanted pregnancy, Julie and Wes can barely afford to keep their home much less pay for fertility treatments. They have given up on their dream of children and are simply hoping to keep Julie out of prison in the short term and clear her record on appeal in the long term.
Raising awareness about Julie's case and her legal defense fund is one way we can help. If you have other ideas, please add them in comments!
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