Posted on 02/17/2009 4:22:46 PM PST by NCjim
Ask yourself: should the police be involved when tipsy teen girls e-mail their boyfriends naughty Valentine's Day pictures?
Say you're a middle-school principal who confiscated a cell phone from a 14-year-old boy, only to discover it contains a nude photo of his 13-year-old girlfriend. Do you (a) call the boy's parents in despair; (b) call the girl's parents in despair; or (c) call the police? More and more, the answer is (d) all of the above. Which could result in criminal charges for both of your students, and their eventual designation as sex offenders. "Sexting" is the clever new name for the act of sending, receiving or forwarding naked photos via your cell phone, and I wasn't fully convinced that America was facing a sexting epidemic, as opposed to a journalists-writing-about-sexting epidemic, until I saw a new survey done by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. One teenager in five reported having sent or posted naked photos of themselves. Whether all this reflects a new child-porn epidemic, or just a new iteration of the old teen narcissism epidemic, remains unclear.
Last month, three girls (ages 14 or 15) in Greensburg, Pa., were charged with disseminating child pornography for sexting their boyfriends. The boys who received the images were charged with possession. A teenager in Indiana faces felony obscenity charges for sending a picture of his genitals to female classmates. A 15-year-old girl in Ohio and a 14-year-old girl in Michigan were charged with felonies for sending nude images of themselves to classmates. Some of these teens have pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Others have not. If convicted, these young people may have to register as sex offenders, in some cases for a decade or two.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
How the he** can it be against the law to send nude photos of yourself, even if you are an under aged teenage girl? This just borders on the ridiculous and shows how far down we have fallen. Felony charges against these kids for doing something that they have probably done in private already, show their bodies to their boyfriends and girlfriends. Sounds like the problem of the parents and none of the business of the frickin’ school or any other government agency. All of these kids are under age, so where’s the crime? An adult receiving kiddy porn? Nope. An adult sending nude photos of his/her self? Nope. No crime, just BS government interference in parents business.
So, yeah, I'm not a big fan of the schools messing around with kids and I am a HUGE advocate of home schooling and private schools and school vouchers.
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.
1959 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2009 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Same here. All of us had knives from the time we could think about bringing them. Only got one taken one time, and the teacher gave it back after class and told me, in short, “I’m not saying don’t bring it, but don’t let anyone see it outside of this class.”
This happened in Augusta a couple months back...I’ll see if I can find the story.
Very, very true. We live in a very weird world of utter permissiveness and totalitarianism, often mixed in the same package.
I understand giving your kid a cell phone...
But why do these kids NEED camera phones or whatever they have that can kick these file around?
I blame the parents...and no, my kids have simple cell phones that they can talk on AND NOTHING MORE.
Sorry to have inconvenienced you, Good luck with your daughters.
The other day my husband and I were talking about drive by shootings. He said he never worried about them when he was in high school because the rednecks with rifles in their vehicles outnumbered the gangbangers at his school. BTW, this was less than twenty years ago.
I dont remember saying that, but if you believe it fine.
I suppose where you went to middle school it was prevalent.
And I’m not disappointed. Putting people like this on the list dilutes and makes meaningless the point of the list.
Ever notice how “educators” can’t think their way out of a wet paper bag? If you call the police into a situation like this you make it a criminal matter. I don’t mean to minimize the situation, but jeeze! Call the parents into a conference, show them the evidence & leave the room. Let them figure it out!
You got that right. These people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Sex offender status? Good grief, we are only talking nudity here.
Some teenage girl wants to entice her boyfriend. Like that hasn't been going on since the dawn of time. Anyone who is shocked by this has led a very sheltered life.
Yep. All they did when I was a kid was play strip poker and streak through the boys locker room.
See post #10. Hate is a powerful motivator.
Because there is a LOT of political mileage to be had in purveying this stuff, and nobody remembers who pushed it when it not only fails but is found to be counterproductive.
IMHO any politician who hangs his hat today on "being tough on sex offenders" has no real issues, much less solutions to same, on which to run. All he can do is pander, pander, pander.
I had hopes for Bobby Jindal, but he's falling way short. Some folks tell me he's a "big-government Republican" but I think that's a contradiction in terms.
Sadly, criminal liability taken the tool of discretion away from educators these days. Everything is "zero tolerance" and the educator that finds this stuff and fails to notify the authorities about "child pornography knowingly exchanged in the classroom" is putting their career and possibly their freedom on the line.
It has become easier to just call the cops and "CYA."
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