By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — A substitute teacher accidentally played porn to students inside a seventh-grade classroom at O.L. Smith Middle School, 23581 Yale, March 13.
Dearborn Public Schools Communication Director David Mustonen said the teacher was trying to play a video about Lewis and Clark to U.S. History students when 30 to 45 seconds of a pornographic video played instead.
Although the district is calling the incident a technology glitch on the district-owned computer, the teacher will not return to district’s schools, administration officials said.
It was unconfirmed how the video surfaced during the lesson, but the teacher was questioned by Smith Principal Zeina Jerbril and the school’s resource officer.
A Dearborn police investigation was completed with no criminal intent found. The DPS Information Technology Department is conducting its own investigation.
Mustonen said the department is working with its filtering software company to investigate how the video was able to get through the Internet filters.
Jerbril posted a message on the school’s website March 26, informing parents, students, staff and community about the incident.
“When this incident occurred a letter was sent home with the students directly involved,” she wrote. “I even spoke directly with a few parents who had children in the classroom. This very unfortunate, isolated event was addressed and appeared to be resolved.
“Today, our school was contacted by a local television station interested in doing a story on this matter. It appears the story will air sometime later today.”
She continued by reaffirming that the teacher involved would not return to the district and that the Technology Department is working so a similar incident does not occur again.
“There are 21,000 students in the Dearborn Public Schools and more than 2,600 staff members,” she wrote. “This means there are millions of computer sessions in any given week. I provide this information not as an excuse for what occurred, but to provide context of the volume of traffic on our network each day. As fast as filtering software is updated and improved, there are those working just as fast at attempting to bypass that software.”
Jerbril ended the letter saying those at the school pride themselves on creating a safe environment for the students.
“When an incident occurs that compromises that environment, every effort will be put forth to restore the safety of our school,” she said. “By working together we can ensure that our children will be safe when using the Internet at school and at home.”
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)