A former substitute teacher in Ohio was sentenced to 90 days in jail Wednesday after being convicted of showing a movie to a class that included graphic sex and violence scenes.
Sheila Kearns was convicted on four felony counts in January. Kearns apologized to the court saying she did not watch the movie before showing it to her Spanish class at Columbus’ East High School in April 2013.
Kearns showed the film “The ABCs of Death.” The movie consists of 26 chapters each depicting some form of death representing each letter of the alphabet; “E for Exterminate,” “O for Orgasm.”
The 58-year-old teacher was convicted of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The Columbus Dispatch reports the judge placed Kearns on probation for three years, but the jail time was a condition of probation.
Prosecutors said the movie title should have given Kearns an idea to view the movie before showing it to her students. Another student testified saying the movie was “disturbing” and the class went “crazy” while watching it.
Jurors watched the movie, which rates 4.7 out of 10 stars on the IMDb website, before convicting Kearns. After the conviction, the jury foreman said it wasn't proved at trial that Kearns was aware of the movie's content the first time she showed it but she would have known by the second, third, fourth and fifth showings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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