My Highschool History Teacher was Arrested

[Amplifier]

Mr Sarcone

I'm watching the news and I saw that my high school history teacher was arrested for possessing child pornography... of boys.

Glad I didn't stay for any of his after school 'help' sessions.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Whoa.

 

[screw3d]

:Q

 

[Amplifier]

Just to add on to what's happened at my old school since I graduated in 2001.

A) Multiple arrests for Heroin.
B) Super tight securty w/ID cards
C) Camera's in the hallways
D) 3-4 cops on duty. Only 1800 students.
E) Only one door is open after 8am.

This was the top public school in a nice suburban county lol.

 

[Lucky]

Jesus, I can't believe posession of child pornography is only a misdemeanor in your state.

 

[DaTT]

Qweird

 

[Zysoclaplem]

How did they catch him? Did someone report him? Or did they just decide one day to search his pc?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

 

[halik]

I wonder how the cops search for porn like that.

"hmmm whats this "

C:\>cd porn
C:\porn\>dir
kiddy
granny
gnome

C:\porn\>cd kiddy
c:\porn\kiddy\>dir

"oh shit"

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

Same here!

 

[PoPPeR]

my middle school woodshop teacher was arrested for distributing child porn

people in our class always wondered why he offered extra credit for anyone that would give him their email address

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

It's a pretty mild offence, imo. It's not like he was abusing real live kids.

 

[SuperTool]

It's so easy to plant this stuff on someone's computer, I am surprised this "evidence" stands up in court.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

It's a pretty mild offence, imo. It's not like he was abusing real live kids.

He's helping to further the sexual abuse and exploitation of children who will probably be severely messed up for the rest of their life.

I find that to be a little bit more then a mild offense.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

It's a pretty mild offence, imo. It's not like he was abusing real live kids.

Still, possession of child porn is treated as a felony by the federal government and most states.

I have personally prosecuted and defended child porn cases, and in the aggregate I think they should be handled as felonies, because folks who possess child porn have demonstrated a sexual interest in children and should be subject to the scrutiny afforded convicted felons (though this is fairly case-specific, and there's a big difference IMO between "barely legal" images of 16-18 year olds and explicit porn involving small children).

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

He is losing his job of 36 years. And even though he was an uber-liberal (wonder why) he was never a d!ck to me and made class enjoyable.

It sucks that all the people who were his friends are going to pile up on him when he's down.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: SuperTool
It's so easy to plant this stuff on someone's computer, I am surprised this "evidence" stands up in court.

The government bears the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant knowingly possessed the material. This is somewhat easier now that so many machines are on networks and require secure login - a forensic expert can easily testify when images were accessed and/or created with high specificity, and if that happened when the defendent was known to be logged in and working on other files, the government has a solid case in that respect.

In my experience, though, you're right that that tends to be a weakness of the government's case in these computer child porn prosecutions. Frequently the defendants are more tech-literate than the average bear as well, which is a further complication.

 

[MisterCornell]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
Mr Sarcone

I'm watching the news and I saw that my high school history teacher was arrested for possessing child pornography... of boys.

Glad I didn't stay for any of his after school 'help' sessions.

No need to. I bet he had a camera in the boy's locker room. :beer:

 

[MrDudeMan]

that would suck if someone set him up. seeing how it is a high school, i wouldnt rule this out as a possibility.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: Amplifier

He is losing his job of 36 years. And even though he was an uber-liberal (wonder why) he was never a d!ck to me and made class enjoyable.

It sucks that all the people who were his friends are going to pile up on him when he's down.

The article doesn't say he's losing his job - it says he's on paid administrative leave. If he's acquitted, I imagine he'll be allowed to keep working or retire with a pension. In any case, that kind of collateral impact is a separate issue from whether this should be a felony or a misdemeanor.

Since we have no idea what kind of or how much child porn he allegely possessed, I certainly am not ready to draw any conclusion as to what punishment is appropriate in this instance.

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
How did they catch him? Did someone report him? Or did they just decide one day to search his pc?

No clue man, maybe the person who found the porn viewed mpeg by virus filled mpeg to find the underage porn.

Edit: I talked to my parents/sisters about this. They confirmed that the teachers aren't going to protest his removal from the school. The board may allow him to retire instead of firing him outright, but the fact remains that he's out of public teaching.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: DonVito
It's odd this is only a misdemeanor. I didn't know any states had misdemeanor child-porn statutes.

It's a pretty mild offence, imo. It's not like he was abusing real live kids.

He's helping to further the sexual abuse and exploitation of children who will probably be severely messed up for the rest of their life.

Well, not unless he's actually buying child porn from the makers of child porn.

If he's just downloading it, like I download MP3s, no money flows back to the original producers at all.

Originally posted by: BigJ
I find that to be a little bit more then a mild offense.

I don't.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Amplifier

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
How did they catch him? Did someone report him? Or did they just decide one day to search his pc?

No clue man, maybe the person who found the porn viewed mpeg by virus filled mpeg to find the underage porn.

Edit: I talked to my parents/sisters about this. They confirmed that the teachers aren't going to protest his removal from the school. The board may allow him to retire instead of firing him outright, but the fact remains that he's out of public teaching.

That's what upsets me about charges of either possession of child pornography or rape; they're so politically and emotionally charged that a) rational debate regarding either issue is near impossible, b) it's relatively easy to set someone up, and c) once you're accused, your career is over.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
Just to add on to what's happened at my old school since I graduated in 2001.

A) Multiple arrests for Heroin.
B) Super tight securty w/ID cards
C) Camera's in the hallways
D) 3-4 cops on duty. Only 1800 students.
E) Only one door is open after 8am.

This was the top public school in a nice suburban county lol.

Heh... my HS was 1800 students and we didn't have so much as a security guard, let alone cops. And it was an open campus (could leave during lunch and come back).

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Orsorum

Originally posted by: Amplifier

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
How did they catch him? Did someone report him? Or did they just decide one day to search his pc?

No clue man, maybe the person who found the porn viewed mpeg by virus filled mpeg to find the underage porn.

Edit: I talked to my parents/sisters about this. They confirmed that the teachers aren't going to protest his removal from the school. The board may allow him to retire instead of firing him outright, but the fact remains that he's out of public teaching.

That's what upsets me about charges of either possession of child pornography or rape; they're so politically and emotionally charged that a) rational debate regarding either issue is near impossible, b) it's relatively easy to set someone up, and c) once you're accused, your career is over.

Which is why I believe in certain cases, the names of the accused should be protected until after the trial and acquittal/conviction.

Even if he's found innocent, this man will never teach again, and possibly never find decent employment again.