Ohio Teacher Going to Prison for Showing Students The ABCs of Death
John Squires
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Released in 2012, The ABCs of Death is gory, grotesque, depraved and, needless to say, totally not a kids’ movie. For some utterly illogical reason, a teacher in Ohio recently screened the film for her students, and now she’s facing some serious jail time. It’s a crazy story so read on to hear it!
As reported by The Columbus Dispatch, 58-year-old Sheila Kearns went on trial earlier this week, charged with five felony counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. A substitute for a Spanish class, Kearns showed the film to five different groups of 14- to 18-year-old students last year and was immediately fired for doing so.
The law determining that a simple loss of her job wasn’t enough, Kearns was hauled into court, a jury tasked with deciding whether or not the punishment of imprisonment fit the “crime.” The substitute teacher swears she hadn’t seen the movie prior to showing it and had no idea how graphic the content was.
In a follow-up news piece posted yesterday, The Columbus Dispatch reported that the jury convicted Kearns of four counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, each charging carrying a maximum sentence of one year. The charges also each carry $2,500 fines so the teacher is facing four years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
“God is good,” are the only words Kearns spoke after the verdict was announced. Her attorney says she will appeal, and sentencing is scheduled for March 4th.
“For anybody, I think it would be a challenging video,” said one juror, after being forced to watch the anthology horror film. “Nobody enjoyed it.”
The ABCs of Death consists of 26 “chapters,” one for each letter of the alphabet and each depicting some form of a grisly death. For example, “D Is for Dogfight.”
What do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime, or is Kearns simply neglectful and idiotic, rather than a criminal? Sound off below, underneath the grisly image from what is now one of the most controversial horror films of all time!
Categorized:News
