UPDATE: Catholic School: Virus to Blame for Inappropriate Images

Updated on Sunday, March 4 at 7:42 p.m.

A Mount Pleasant Catholic school says a computer virus caused indecent and inappropriate images to flash across a projection screen in a sixth-grade classroom.

On Feb. 28, parents of children at received a four-page letter detailing the accounts of the school's investigation.

A Diocese of Charleston spokeswoman said she had nothing to add to the letter; that it stands on its own. (See the attached document.)

The teacher, who has since returned to the classroom, was placed on administrative leave while the school conducted the investigation.

The Diocese of Charleston stands by the letter it distributed to parents at Christ Our King-Stella Maris Catholic School on Feb. 28, 2012, and on Friday released a statement to reiterate that it had taken the allegations made against a sixth-grade teacher seriously. In the statement, the diocese said:

"We understand that there are those who feel the pastors did not weight their concerns regarding prior complaints against the teacher, and her inappropriate comment to the class. School officials have previously addressed the past grievances against the teacher and they have reprimanded her for the inappropriate comment. The teacher's return to the classroom centered on whether or not she intentionally allowed inappropriate images to be shown to her class. Since there was no evidence whatsoever that she deliberately allowed those images to appear on the SMART Board, the decision for her to return to the classroom was based on the revelation that she had not purposely done anything wrong. Additional complaints, innuendos or conclusions raised by others are not supported by fact. Any other concern as to any aspect of the investigation or any other aspect of the teacher's conduct does not have a bearing on this particular issue." (Read the full statement from the Diocese of Charleston in the attached document.)

According to the letter sent home to parents, the investigation began after the school's principal, Jean Moschella, learned that a group of students had told an administrator that a teacher had allowed pictures of a naked woman to appear on a SMART Board in the classroom, after the viewing of a science video.

The students, according to the letter, said they were concerned because the teacher had told them not to tell anyone because she would be fired.

When confronted, the teacher told the principal that inappropriate images had in fact appeared on the screen and had done so with her having no control over it. The teacher also said that none of the images had been those of a naked woman.

The diocese brought in an outside computer forensic investigator and the diocese's independent private investigator, Paul Buceti, to conduct an investigation.

The forensic computer expert, looked at the server, the SMART board and iPad used in the classroom. The investigation revealed that none of the pictures had been accessed through any website, nor had they been downloaded onto the computer.

However, the expert did find several viruses on the computer which may have caused the images to be displayed at no fault of the teacher.

The administration has reprimanded the teacher for telling the students not to tell their parents.

Counselors were available to talk to students on Wednesday after the teacher returned to work.