PITTSBURGH — A mother of two who swore at a western Pennsylvania school board has been found not guilty of disorderly conduct.

Johanna Boratko, 41, appealed her conviction by a district judge stemming from a March 1 Greater Johnstown School Board meeting. She acknowledges using the f-word because she was upset about what she felt was a lack of action about bullying.

Her attorney, Timothy Burns, says her language — while inappropriate — wasn’t illegal. And on Friday a Cambria County judge who heard her appeal earlier this month agreed.

The judge found it couldn’t be proven that Boratko intended to cause “inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.” The judge also says using the f-word isn’t “obscene” under the statute unless it’s used in a sexual context.

“We’re not looking for the right to use profanity, but we want people to be comfortable in what they say to a school board or public officials,” Burns said.

Boratko and her husband first raised concerns in February that their two sons were being bullied at the district’s middle school. Boratko told reporters seven to 10 students had been picking on him for three years and telling him “he should just die.”

Burns said Friday that it appears the board is addressing those concerns pro-actively.