Every so often, one or another of my Facebook friends will post an image or e-card with the cheerful and uplifting admonition to “dance like nobody’s watching.” Some have attributed the sweet sentiment to author William Purkey or even (amusingly) to famously acerbic wit Mark Twain, but the line was actually penned thirty years ago…
At first blush (if anyone actually does that anymore), this seemed like a fairly straightforward, technology-facilitated teacher-student boundary violation. But then the legal documents began flying … Sex and a Guilty Plea In May 2014, a 17-year-old student showed a cellphone video to the principal of Richard King High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. The…
Three students at Ponderosa High School in Ponderosa, CA are now facing child pornography charges following two separate incidents over the past two weeks. In a press release issued on October 17, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office announced the discovery a sexually explicit video involving three minors: On October 14, 2015, at Ponderosa High…
Earlier this year, I wrote about the case of Robert Emmett, who plead guilty to charges of filming up the skirts of students at his school, St. Andrews Cathedral School in Sydney, and to possession of child abuse materials. Last Thursday, Judge Ian McClintock of the Downing Centre District Court imposed a sentence of two…
The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority has had a tough year. The commuter service was faced with enormous challenges last winter when the region was pummelled by eleven plus feet of snow and by most accounts, the MBTA blew it. By mid-February, the agency’s schedule was in shambles and general manager Beverly Scott was forced to…
A 28-year-old former 5th grade teacher at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Mass. was convicted last Wednesday of possessing child pornography, but was acquitted of a more serious production charge. Josh Wairi, who previously taught in the Somerville School District at the high school and the John F. Kennedy Elementary School, was arrested…
An arrest nearly two years ago of a man in New South Wales for allegedly using his cellphone to record so-called “upskirt” videos of women on a train platform wound up rocking the halls of one of Sydney’s oldest schools. After the arrest was made, police identified the suspect as Robert Emmett, a 36-year-old teacher…
This message needs to be spread far and wide: People in the United States have the right to videotape the actions of government employees in public spaces. As I noted in an earlier post, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has published a useful summary of the rights of citizens to record interactions with…
The motto of the Providence, RI police department is “Semper Vigilans,” which translates as “always watchful,” or “always on watch.” It’s a encouraging slogan for the city’s police department, but apparently one that doesn’t apply to the city’s residents. Earlier this month, The Providence Journal reported on allegations by John Prince that city police officers…
