Issues of Liability for Teachers

There are several issues of liability that we need to be aware of. Take a look at two recent cases:

1. The Julie Amero Case: In 2006, a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut, was convicted of impairing the morals of a child and risking injury to a minor after students saw pop-up to porn sites on a computer in her classroom. She was unaware that the classroom computer had no firewall and outdated antivirus protection, nevertheless she was found guilty. Her conviction was vacated in June 2007 after a string of protests around the country. At the moment she is awaiting the possibility of a retrial.

2. The Florida School Campus Officer Investigation: At this moment a Florida school campus officer is under criminal investigation over a MySpace account in which one of several hundred friends on the page had a link to a porn site. Even though the officer had no knowledge of the site, it would have been possible for a student to access the porn site from the officer's page in three clicks. This case is bizare and it will be interesting to see how it turns out.