More than 400 students from Norwin High School in western Pennsylvania got an unexpected eyeful Friday, when a big screen presentation on the importance of donating blood suddenly turned into an X-rated slideshow.
The hardcore images -- described by students as gay pornography, according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette -- were stored on a portable flash drive owned by a Central Blood Bank employee. That USB stick also contained the safe-for-all-ages PowerPoint presentation. But unfortunately, the Gazette noted, when Assistant Principal Tim Kotch plugged the drive into a computer, he unwittingly clicked on the wrong file, causing several explicit photos to appear on the school's giant TV screen.
"It took a few seconds for people to process what was up there," senior Chelsey Fix told the newspaper. "People were laughing, but the main thing was people were like, 'I can't believe this happened.'" Student Ethan Dobranski told Channel 4 Action News that the images included "frontal male nudity, and there was one with, like, two people in there, but it was, like, from the back."
"That's what popped up, but I don't think [the Central Blood Bank employee] realized that was on there at the time, and he was truly embarrassed for what happened," student Dan Jones told the TV news show. "He was just shocked. He, like, put his hand on the stage and covered his head. He was so ashamed of himself for having that."
A second presentation planned for the school's junior class later that day was canceled.
OK, you and I can laugh a little, the students laughed, the Assistant Principal feels like a fool through not fault of his own--and I guess it's appropriate if the blood bank employee loses his job. But do we really need to go here?
Those hardcore images may have caused snickers among the students, but they look certain to result in the Central Blood Bank being hit with a seriously hefty lawsuit. "They tell me it lasted about 30 seconds, which is a long time," attorney Peter J. Payne, who has been hired by parents of several students who attended the presentation, told Channel 4.
The school has apologized. The blood bank has apologized. Do these bloodsucking parents and their ambulance-chasing lawyers want anything besides ill-gotten blood money? To ask the question is to answer it.
this is america, where you get sued, for being alive and taking up someone elses space
ReplyDeleteIf the courts would start imposing fines for frivolous/greedy lawsuits, maybe we wouldn't see such nonsense.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think "sue happy" America is why too many administrators in our school systems turn into big piles of mush when a parent shows the least little bit of outrage.
I beg to differ. While high school students tend to act like nothing shocks them, I'm sure many students had never been exposed to anything like that before and lost some measure of their innocence. Images like that get burned onto your brain and can't be taken back. Not that a lawsuit will fix anything but just an apology seems too insignificant.
ReplyDeleteBut since you acknowledge that nothing will restore their innocence, what can anyone offer besides an apology?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, though--dragging this through a court to try to wring a few shekels out of someone isn't going to do much for anyone's innocence either.
I would say it's pretty careless and unprofessional to have private material of any kind on a flashdrive designated for public consumption. So while the blood bank employee is covered under free speech for being an adult and possessing such material, he's a doofus as an employee and should be fired for his lack of professionalism.
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