School completes porn probe

SILVER CITY, N.M., Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A New Mexico school superintendent said he has completed an investigation into a seconds-long porn clip that was accidentally shown to high school students.

Officials said students at a Cliff High School history class in Silver City were shown a film by a substitute teacher about the Paris 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but the beginning of the tape contained a few seconds of footage depicting two nude women, one of whom was masturbating, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reported Tuesday.

Silver Consolidated School District Superintendent Dick Pool said the tape shown Feb. 11 was a program recorded from the History Channel and had apparently been taped over pornographic materials. Pool said the teacher who left the tape to be played by the substitute was shocked at the pornographic content and had shown the tape previously without the explicit materials becoming visible.

Pool said attempts to play the tape in several VCRs found the pornographic clip could only be seen on some machines. The superintendent said his investigation is complete but declined to say what action was taken against the teacher.

"As far as the district is concerned, the investigation is complete," he said. "Anything further, if it is to come, will come from the Department of Education."