Posted on 06/22/2008 8:23:29 PM PDT by Coleus
Seven ninth-graders at Pascack Valley High School have been suspended for the rest of the school year for distributing racy photos of middle school girls via cell phones and school-issued laptops. A student who saw the photos on a laptop tipped off a teacher, and the administration alerted Hillsdale police last week, district Superintendent Benedict Tantillo III said today.
More than 20 girls who are now in ninth grade were in the photos, the superintendent said. Some pictures appeared to have been taken two or three years ago, and some of the subjects moved to private high school instead of Pascack Valley. The girls were seen from the waist up in various states of undress, typically with bare breasts, he said. “I have not seen the pictures,” he added. “I don’t want to see the pictures.”
Citing a school inquiry, he said it was unclear whether the shots were self-portraits or snapped by others but none appeared to have been filmed on district property. He said one boy had asked girls to send him photos so they could star in a “gallery” he was assembling. “As a father of three girls, I can’t imagine (any young women) taking pictures of themselves and sending them around knowing they would be distributed,” Tantillo said.
Cases of teens sending around lewd cell phone pictures of their bodies have been reported in New York, Connecticut, Alabama, Utah, Pennsylvania, Texas and Connecticut. Psychologists say the phenomenon reflects young hormones and impulsivity, with technology increasing the potential for long-term humiliation. It may also reflect a vogue for exhibitionism, as demonstrated on MySpace, YouTube and other Web sites.
Craig Fabrikant, a Westwood psychologist who works with many northern Bergen teens, said that sadly, trading nude cell phone pictures is common around here these days. Why? “The novelty,” he said. “It’s a way of getting attention . . . Kids today, in terms of sexuality, are much more open than previous generations. The promiscuity of it is psychologically worrisome. It’s degrading to our value system.”
So are parents supposed to spy on their teens’ cell phone snapshots now to censor the scandalous? “That’s a good question and opens up a whole area of you-don’t-trust-me-mom,” Fabrikant said. “Is there a good answer? I don’t have it.” Pascack Valley notified parents of the unsettling incident last week. “This constitutes possession and or distribution of child pornography and it is a violation of the district’s acceptable use policy,” high school Principal Thomas DeMaio said in a June 5 letter to parents. The letter said the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office had issued a 48-hour grace period to let students delete these items from their computers, cell phones and iPods. Anyone found to have these images after 48 hours risked being charged with the 4th degree crime of possession of child pornography, it said.
Joseph Macellaro, chief of detectives of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, said today that his staff’s investigation is continuing. “We are still looking into it, and we will make a decision based on what we find out,” he said. “It is more than likely there won’t be any charges.” Hillsdale Police Chief Chip Stalter said his department was letting the school handle the incident as an internal disciplinary matter. Laws against child pornography were meant to be applied to “pedophiles and child predators, not high school hi-jinx,” he said.
Two of his staffers — Patrolman Jeffrey Angermeyer, who is on the prosecutor’s computer crimes task force, and school resource officer Sean Kavanagh — lectured the entire high school on Friday to warn students against the dangers of sending sexy photos to even one friend. They stressed that once photos enter cyberspace, they can be seen by college admissions officers and potential employers as well as lascivious voyeurs.
“These things you think are very innocent and done in fun . . . can ruin good chances for jobs later in life and cause great embarrassment,” he said. Parents picking up their teens from the high school on Monday expressed dismay and alarm. Some students said the stern lecture from police made them more aware of the consequences of such risky communications. Anthony Delchop of Hillsdale, the parent of a 14-year-old freshman boy, was sympathetic to the students. “I’m sure the ones who are hurt the most are the parents of the girls and the boys who are being punished,” Delchop added.
“You’re always worried,” said Gina Pille of Hillsdale, the parent of a sophomore girl. “I don’t even know what they do on the computer.” Joanne Ramella, of Hillsdale, the mother of a freshman, said she came from a generation that did not use computers. She said her daughter, from a more sheltered private school, had never been so close to such turmoil. “I’m disappointed,” Ramella said, as her daughter nodded in agreement. “What’s important is educating young daughters what not to do and our young men on how to be gentlemen.”
Sandra Russo of Washington Township has two nephews attending Pascack Valley. She criticized the school’s computer protections and said the school should be more careful in checking out laptops it issues. I would be furious if I were a parent and this were on their computers,” Russo said. “It is absolutely crazy. Where is the security?” Tantillo said the school’s spam filters blocked pictures from entering its laptops via email. The offending photos must have been loaded onto somebody’s pen drive, which was then plugged into laptops. Raunchy photos were found on six or seven laptops, and on a cell phone confiscated from a male student. The seven suspended students also lost their privileges to access school technology networks and school email.
• Anyone who takes pornographic photos or videos of a child under the age of 16 can be charged with creation of child pornography. It carries up to 10 years in prison.
• If the creator is a parent, teacher or other adult with supervisory authority over the child, creation of child porn becomes a first-degree offense that carries up to 20 years in prison.
• Anyone who distributes such images can be charged with distribution of child pornography. E-mailing images to friends is also distribution of child pornography. It carries up to 10 years in prison.
• Anyone who possesses pornographic images can be charged with possession of child pornography, which carries up to 18 months in prison.
• It is also illegal for children to distribute nude photos of themselves or one another, but prosecutors are unlikely to bring charges. For example: If a 13-year-old girl asks her 13-year-old friend to pose nude or engage in sexual acts, takes pictures and e-mails them to another friend, it is technically a crime but most likely won’t result in charges. Or a 13-year-old child who takes photos of himself or herself while engaging in sexual acts and e-mails them to friends.
Coleus, you gotta stop reading The Record! You are turning this into “Be even more ashamed of New Jersey Night” on Free Republic!
“How will your children become socialized?”-—Question often asked homeschoolers-—It’s supposed to be a real stumper.
Too bad finding out is so much work - you could be a real parent then...
My Grandmother got married when she was 14.
That’s a very young grandmother!
WTF?
I have a 9 year old. My wife has been on me to get him a cell phone which I refuse. I think when the time comes for him to get one, I hope the basic cell phones are still around where there is no camera and no means to do photography. I don’t want that cr@p coming through my phones or home network.
Much ado about nothing....
I don’t know if those older phones would have the right technology to work on today’s networks. I still have an old phone in my drawer with no camera, but I don’t know what battery life would be like if I wanted to get it connected with a plan.
yeah, because what the heck....the girls will have big careers at Hooters in a few years so what do they need modesty or morality for....
waste of time......./sarcasm/
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I would be curious how wide spread this is..I think there is always going to be a more “adventuresome” , risk taking & group with less moral conscious at any school. Sometimes it will reflect what goes on in the home (or lack of supervision) but other times it will be kids in rebellion.
I have had friends with several kids & in the same family some are great, clean cut & others wild hellions. Parenting alone isnt the only variable.
When I was growing up in the dark ages, the students were risque to smoke & cuss a bit.. of course there was always the sexual activity but it was not normally something one bragged about. There were the steady couples & the virgin seeking studs, who normally could find agreeable partners in the virgins or the “loose girls” of the school. Most of us didn’t approve of the sexual activity but felt it more “okay” for the committed couples than the other group.
I think parents who are buying cell phones for their minor children should consider the ones without the camera or video features and not get them ones that connect to the Internet. After all, the rationale for getting one is convenience and safety, such as calling to ask for a ride home or if a child walking feels threatened by a stranger.
Internet use should be at home under some supervision by a parent.
How did we get through high school without a cell phone?
Frankly, we give our kids too much.
There’s a good case to be made that cell phones should not be allowed on school campuses.
Thankfully, in this case the prosecutor is saying to delete the pictures, don't do it again, and no one gets arrested. Good. As they said, the laws are for pedophiles and exploiters, etc, not for high-school kids.
I think the parents in this should really think about what they're evidently not teaching their kids here. My daughter knows what can happen. I showed her pictures I heard about that were passed around the local high school that a girl (18) had taken of herself. She got the drift of that real quick, especially when I showed her the child porn laws and how some prosecutors were interpreting them. Unfortunately, too many parents think the best thing to tell their kids about stuff like this is nothing, or "Don't", which to a teenager is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
Of course, it helps if you don't get them camera phones. My daughters (14,12) have cell phones, but there's no camera, no frills, and they're pay-as-you-go phones. I intentionally didn't get them a phone with hundreds of minutes a month. They know if they overuse them, they won't have them available when they need them, so they use them for important things, not texting to their friends in class. They tend to use them to call us if they need picked up from school, or they got back from a field trip or band trip, and other communication needs.
Exactly. I work in IT, and my kids know that if they get off the reservation, Dad will know where they've been. They do pretty well. Do I watch over their shoulders? No. Do I keep an eye on things? Yes.
My step-grandmother married at 13. This was not uncommon for girls in rural regions not too long ago.
We can talk all day long about morality but until recently, people were considered adults at puberty. Of course, if the girls didn't die during childbirth, they and their husbands could look forward to reaching the ripe old age of 35.
When hormones are raging, it's hard to expect someone to wait 10-15 years until they are finished with college and established in their careers.
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