Recent events at one Southeast Michigan high school have students thinking twice for sending a risqué photo to a friend, boyfriend, or classmate that could potentially cross the line from a “practical joke” to pornographic content that can put you behind bars.
That’s what happened at Pinckney High School, located a mere 45 miles from Seaholm, where a picture meant as a practical jokes quickly escalated into a scandal involving potential charges of child pornography.
“To our knowledge 30 to 40 [students] have received the photo,” Pinckney High School Principal Jim Darga told The Highlander. “But the photo [has been circulated] way beyond our school.”
On October 7th, Principal Darga received a printed copy of the racy cell phone picture of a 14 year old student along with an anonymous note. The administration immediately took action.
“We launched an investigation in junction with the [Washtenaw] county sheriff’s department to determine which students were in possession of the photo,” said Darga.
Immediately after commencing the investigation, student cell phones that were suspected to contain the photo were confiscated and officials urged students whose cell phone contained to photo to turn theirs over as well.
Because the student’s photograph was of a pornographic nature and because the student was under the age of 18, she is technically responsible for distributing child pornography, a serious criminal offense, prompting school administrators to contact federal authorities.
“As a school official you don’t make the decision what actions to take,” said Principal Darga. “I do decide, however, what a criminal act is and what is not. If it a student is involved in has made a criminal offense, it is my job to report it.”
In Birmingham, the Seaholm administrators said that such action is necessary in these circumstances.
“The administration is in essence mandatory reporters of any criminal activity that they discover, especially if it’s on school property,” said Corporal Ron Halcrow, the Birmingham Police Department school liaison. “Their rights are more lax under the 4th Amendment. They can search with just mere suspicion.
“We have obligations to meet as far as reporting,” said Seaholm vice Principal Deb Boyer. “It wasn’t that the school’s authorities simply chose to contact authorities because they wanted to get this girl into more trouble. They were only following the rules and guidelines that they gave. It isn’t a pick or choose situation.”
The administration also confirmed that in drastic scenarios, drastic actions would be taken at Seaholm.
“We would have to contact law enforcement in any situation that is out of the boundaries or jurisdictions of what we do,” said Seaholm Assistant Principal Staci Peterson.
The criminal consequences of the girl photographed as well as those who whose phones were confiscated after not deleting the photo had not been determined at press time. However, the Michigan Penal Code does not look lightly on such offenses.
According to the Michigan Penal Code, “A person who distributes or promotes…any sexually abusive material or child sexually abusive activity is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for more than 7 years, or a fine of not more than $50,000.00.”
“Her being status as a juvenile in juvenile court for procession and distribution of sexual material, the harshest punishment is she serves time in a juvenile detention facility,” said Halcrow. “Other penalties could be strict probation or heavy fines ranging up to $10,000.”
As far as those who simply did not delete the photo after their phones were confiscated or proven to have distributed the pornographic content, the Michigan Penal Code states that these students could potentially face a maximum of 4 years of imprisonment or a hefty fine of, at most, $10,000. In addition to these penalties, these students will not have their cell phones returned to them unless they are willing to pay for an expensive a computer forensics procedure to ensure the photo has been permanently deleted from the phone’s memory.
The indecent exposure of teenage girls has not just been confined to Michigan. Whether it is media scandals of celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens or Miley Cyrus leaking less than squeaky-clean images to the web or the scandals involving high school students, it seems as though the a teenager’s “one little joke” is turning into a nationwide trend.
“It’s always possible that something like that could happen, especially with the amount of technology that is readily available [for teens],” said Peterson. “Whether it’s Internet access and all those different social networking sites that students readily use and of course the fact that almost all of our students and probably teenagers across the country in general have cell phones containing technology that allows them to [send pictures]. It is very possible that something that begins as a joke potentially can turn into something very serious.”
On October 3rd, a 15-year-old girl attending Licking Valley High School in Newark, Ohio could potentially be listed as a sex offender for 20 years after sending nude pictures of herself to classmates over her cell phone.
In another case, The Associated Press also reported last January that two photos of two high school girls performing lewd sexual acts were circulated to the student population of Parkland High School in Allenstown, Pennsylvania. The photo was also reported to have reached students at Harvard and Temple Universities and even Oregon, on the opposite side of the country.
“The biggest searched item on the internet is pornography,” said Halcrow. “Once it gets out there it can go to all corners of the globe.”
In the past, even Seaholm students have participated in similar scandals that received administrative attention.
Four years ago we had three freshmen young women who took pictures of each other,” said Boyer. “In this particular case the girls were mostly clothed [but were] very suggestively posed and they sent those out.”
Because there was no exposure of sexual body parts and the photos were taken and distributed outside of school and not on school owned technology, no disciplinary actions were taken by the school or authorities.
“The school repercussions are more of a personal nature than of a disciplinary nature,” said Boyer. “It’s dealing with the students’ reactions to what has happened. Some kids took it as funny ha-ha, some kids took that as who they were and they developed a reputation from that.”
With consequences ranging from ruined reputations to criminal offenses, one would wonder what power the administration has to prevent such scandals from occurring in the future.
“I don’t know how any school can take precautions to prevent somebody from doing that,” said Boyer. “They were in one of the girls bedrooms at the time, at home, far away from any kind of school authority. So what could we do to stop that?”
“This was someone who wasn’t thinking,” said Halcrow. “It starts out as a prank and steps over the line of criminal law. Kids don’t look that far ahead and evaluate that what they consider a joke isn’t a joke to society.”
Although there is little room for proactive action, administrators still use unfortunate circumstances such as those occurring at Pinckney as a learning tool.
“[Students] need to use good judgment and know they could be putting themselves and their future in danger,” said Darga. “You don’t know if those pictures could be on the web and seen by college admissions officers or future employers. Basically the same precautions you would take on a social networking site such as Facebook.”
