WHAT WOULD BOOK BURNING LOOK LIKE ON THE INTERNET?

If you heard a story of a teacher being prosecuted and facing 40 years in prison for exposing kids to pornography because a porn ad page popped up unsolicited while she was teaching, you'd think it was a joke, right?  Everyone understands about pop-ups, right?  This story seems as absurd as the legendary Senator Ted Stevens' "tubes" speech.

Well apparently not.  In Connecticut, Julie Amero, a seventh grade substitute teacher, faces 40 years in prison for just such an event.  You can read a longer story about it here, on AlterNet.

Fortunately, she at least has some supporters.  I learned of this story from Kelly at Mocha Momma -- a committed and very gifted teacher herself.  She is sending all her readers there for the details.  This site's proprietor, Karoli, not only provides links to backup information; she's also donating $1 for every posted comment.  In later posts, she adds still more info - and links. Take a look at them - and maybe even the fund itself.  There's more information there, too.

It's a very troubling and scary story - not only for the obvious civil liberties and injustices, but also for what it says about technological expertise among the powerful.  What do you think?

Comments

[Mom101]

Holy crap I didn't know about this. What is this world coming to? It's all too Orwellian and it's freaking me out.

[Sand Gets in My Eyes]

Cindy - thanks for making me aware of this story - sounds like something that would happen over here if all porn sights (along with anything else the muttawa think might contain objectional material) weren't already blocked. I'll be passing the word!

[Mocha]

You know that you got me with the title because I abhor book burning. ;-)

Even moreso, I abhor victimization. We really need to take better care of our precious resource of humans.