Police in a New Jersey suburb are investigating how naked photographs of teen girls were posted online. Ridgewood school administrators sent a letter to parents of middle and high school students notifying them of the disturbing incident, "This inappropriate behavior includes using social media apps as Instagram or Snap Chat to send images of real or simulated sexual acts and photos of naked or semi-naked persons."
Ridgewood school district and police are investigating the matter together. Ridgewood Superintendent Dan Fishbein's letter stressed that "These incidents happened off school grounds" but "If it is determined that students broke school rules then we would handle that administratively as we do with all student issues." He also wrote, "Often, students participate in the sharing of provocative images of themselves and others without realizing the potential consequences."
According to Ridgewood Patch, several parents and students said that Ridgewood High School girls sent the nude photos using the 'Snapchat' application, which destroys photos between 2 and 10 seconds after they're received. Sources tell the website that an unidentified male student was expecting the images, and he took screenshots of the illicit photos to create an Instagram gallery.
Students told WCBS 2, "Everybody got it in 10 minutes. They show their faces right in the picture, so you know it’s them. It’s so dumb," and "I’ve gotten them, one of my friends sent it to me."
School, local and state authorities are pointing out that "possession and/or transmission of sexually revealing or explicit images, or any materials of that nature, constitute very serious crimes of possession and transmission of child pornography." So there's an amnesty period through Monday, March, 18, 2013 at 7 a.m., for students to delete the photos—Fishbein's letter said, "After this date, any student found to have created, transmitted or possessed an illegal image/movie may be charged with the serious offenses outlined above."
