Hours later, Klitgaard said, he was sitting in the school principal's office and told to wait while police arrived to arrest him for possession of child pornography.

He was subsequently charged with two second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation against a minor. Those charges were dismissed in July, but chances that his life might return to normal remain shaky. The Roy city attorney is still weighing whether to file misdemeanor charges against Klitgaard. Until that is resolved, he can't appeal the loss of his teaching job to the Weber School District, which terminated him early this year.

"It's better now, but it was really tough at first," said Klitgaard, who denies he did anything wrong. "It was really hard for me to see my family go through this."

More than 300 of his supporters have signed an online petition calling on the school district to reinstate him at Roy High School.

Klitgaard said the support makes him feel good, even as his life remains in limbo. He now works for his brother-in-law's trucking company and is living with his wife and four children in his mother-in-law's home in Brigham City after selling his home in Roy.

Neither Klitgaard's attorney, Dee Smith, nor Weber County prosecuting attorney Gary R. Heward returned calls for comment about why the felony charges against Klitgaard were dismissed "in the interest of justice," according to documents on file in 2nd District Court.

In between facing the charges and their dismissal, however, Klitgaard said he's learned plenty about "malware," software unknowingly downloaded onto computers that searches Internet sites, unknown to those using the computer. It's Klitgaard's only explanation for how offensive material might have landed on his laptop, which he said was given to him by the school's computer technician during the 2006-07 school year as a requested item under the school's fine arts budget. EmmaLee Stewart, a 16-year-old junior cast in a dramatic production directed by Klitgaard, said she cried after hearing the allegations against Klitgaard last year. "It was very sad," said Stewart, who signed the petition. "It was important to get it all straightened out, but he needs to come back. He wouldn't do something like that to endanger his job, because he loves what he does."

Blake Boulton, author of the petition and a 2004 graduate of the high school who worked with Klitgaard on many of the school's dramatic productions, questions why anyone who uses a computer to access criminal or inappropriate material would hand it over to a computer technician.

Boulton also cites Klitgaard's surrender of his other computers to law enforcement after his arrest, asking that they be examined for any pornographic files. Klitgaard's desktop computer at home turned up pornographic images Boulton said police reports show were time-stamped prior to the time Klitgaard owned it. Another laptop Klitgaard used at Roy High School was free of inappropriate material.

"I've never doubted Kam," said Boulton. "If someone was really a porn addict, wouldn't they have thousands of footprints on their computer, not just two?"

Klitgaard's Hewlett-Packard desktop computer at Roy High School, however, allegedly showed evidence of Google searches for inappropriate subject matter.

Those alleged searches constitute the basis of Roy city's remaining case against him, Klitgaard said. He denies the charge, stating he knew then and knows now that any use of a school computer to view or search for inappropriate material violates district policy.

"I don't feel bitter toward the district. They're just doing what they have to do, and they're going to give me my hearing," Klitgaard said.

But only after Roy City makes a decision to prosecute - or not. Both the city and the district have little to say about the matter. "Because of the complexity of this case, it's taken longer than typical. We are researching all aspects of this case before making a decision to prosecute," said Andrew Blackburn, Roy's city attorney.

Nate Tagggart, spokesman for the Weber School District, said the petition drive has no impact on how district officials will proceed in any administrative hearing or appeal. "It's not a popularity contest," Taggart said.

Kyle Burkhardt, lead computer technician at PC Laptops, said that while unfamiliar with Klitgaard's case, he is very familiar with the phenomenon of "malware," having scrubbed hundreds of computers free of pornographic images when people bring in laptops for repair and maintenance.

"It likes to invite all its friends over, have a big party and put all sorts of crap on your computer," Burkhardt said. "It's a huge problem."