California- Sheila Harmon found out about the situation at her son’s high school in Fairfield, Calif., through a disturbing text message he sent: “Oh yeah. My teacher accidentally brought up his gay porn.”
Students in a computer graphic arts class at Armijo High School have reported their instructor was teaching a lesson on Adobe Photoshop Monday when the image that was projected to the screen revealed two men engaged in sex.
Freshman Chris Matthews told KXTV-Television in Sacramento that the teacher was clicking on random files when, “All of a sudden this big image of literally gay porn shows up. And he’s going crazy. Just by that reaction that shows that he didn’t expect it.”
Students report that the image remained on the screen for four or five seconds while the teacher scrambled to remove it.
District officials are conducting an investigation to see whether the sneak peak and the image itself – stored on a school computer – will require disciplinary action.
“He was like, ‘Oh, oh, oh, no,'” freshman Garett Cameron told the television station. “Then he hid it away and just kept on going like nothing happened.”
“He showed it and he clicked out of it really quick,” added sophomore Joshua Moose.
Sheila Harmon’s son, however, was not so casual about the incident. He texted his mother, who later said he was “mad and disgusted” with it.
She texted him back, asking who saw the pornographic image. “The whole class saw it. The whole class,” he replied.
“The rules are very tight about pornography at school, and here it’s the teacher looking at it. I think he should be fired,” Harmon told the station.
“I was like, wow, that’s odd that a teacher would have that on his computer at school,” said senior Livia Qasevakatini.
“Well, I know how it happened, but I just don’t know why he would have it on his computer. It’s kind of questionable,” added Cameron.
Armijo Principal Steven Peters has launched an inquiry.
“We’ll send the information to the district office,” he said.
According to Sgt. Joel Orr of the Fairfield police, it’s not likely that there would be a criminal violation if there was no intent to show a pornographic image to minors.
The incident is reminiscent, however, of the much publicized case of Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Connecticut, who in 2007 was convicted for “accidentally” exposing her class to computer porn. She could have faced up to 40 years in prison. Six months later, a superior court judge threw out the ruling and released Amero.