Teacher charged with “sexting” student
Teens have been doing it, now it’s teachers’ turn.
A Detroit-area middle school teacher allegedly sent 10 sexually explicit text messages and a partially nude photo of herself to one of her 14-year-old students. Michelle Simsonson, 28, has been charged with enticing a minor for immoral purposes and distributing sexually explicit material to a minor.
Simsonson had been the boy’s teacher during the past school year, but has since resigned from Sashabaw Middle School, the Detroit Free Press reported. She was arraigned in court last week.
The boy told investigators that he and his teacher began texting each other in the fall, but then the content became more sexually explicit. He said he told her to stop and that there was never physical contact between the two.
If convicted, Simsonson faces up to four years in prison.
Teen arrested for posting nude pics on MySpace
In happier days, Tyler Deccio, 18, received nude photos of his 15-year-old girlfriend. Once the Everett, Wash., couple broke up, Tyler allegedly posted the X-rated pics on MySpace, along with the girl’s name and crude comments.
After the girl went to the cops, Tyler was arrested on felony charges of suspicion of harassment and posting nude photos of a minor. Tyler appeared in court on Wednesday, where he told the judge that he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him, KING TV News reported.
Tyler is just the latest kid to be arrested on sexting charges. Read about other cases here.
Vermont may allow teens to exchange nude photos legally
Teens have been charged with child porn, sent to jail and even forced to register as sex offenders for “sexting.” But now some Vermont lawmakers want to pass a bill that would give kids legal cover if they send X-rated photos and videos to each other.
Supporters are quick to say that they don’t condone sexting — they just don’t want the teens to be put in the same category as your run-of-the-mill child molester. “There’s no public interest in labeling them as sex offenders for engaging in a perverted, albeit new, form of courtship,” T.J. Donovan, a county prosecutor, told the Burlington Free Press.
The proposed law would make it legal for explicit photos to be consensually exchanged between those ages 13 to 18.
In Ohio, lawmakers also are considering legal protections for sexting teens. The bill proposes that incidents be charged as a misdemeanor so that teens are not labeled as felons and sex offenders. For adults, though, transmitting nude photos of minors would still be a felony.
Teen put on sex offender registry for “sexting” nude photo
Phillip Alpert, 18, was mad at his girlfriend. So he sent out a naked photo of the 16-year-old to dozens of her friends and family members. Maybe he should have just dated her best friend instead.
Orlando police booked Phillip on a felony child porn charge. After the high school senior was convicted, he was required by state law to register as a sex offender. His attorney is now fighting to get the teen removed from the registry. Phillip says he is being excessively punished for a stupid, immature act. “You will find me on the registered sex offender list next to people who have raped children, molested kids, things like that,” Phillip told CNN.
How teens should be punished for “sexting” is controversial. Some police and prosecutors say that teens need to realize that sending nude photos isn’t a harmless joke — child molesters could get hold of the X-rated material.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against prosecutors who had threatened to file child porn charges against three teens featured in explicit photos. In March, a judge agreed to temporarily block the charges.
Judge bars prosecutor from charging teens for nude photos
A Pennsylvania prosecutor had threatened to file child porn charges against three teens featured in explicit photos. But U.S. District Judge James Munley decided to temporarily block the charges after a lawsuit was filed contending that the photos were not pornographic and the teens never consented to having their pictures distributed.
One photo is of a teen girl who has just gotten out of the shower and is topless. The other picture shows two girls in their bras. The images were widely distributed among students at Tunkhannock Area High School in northeastern Pennsylavnia in October, where boys were trading racy photos of teen girls. Sexting has become a phenomenon among teens, and many have been arrested on child porn charges and even jailed.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit saying charging the Pennsylvania teens was too heavy-handed. “This country needs to have a discussion about whether prosecuting minors as child pornographers for merely being impulsive and naive is the appropriate way to address the serious consequences” of sexting, Witold Walczack, the state ACLU legal director told the Associated Press.
County prosecutor George Skumanick Jr. said he may appeal the judge’s decision. Previously, he had offered to not file charges if the girls participated in an after-school program about sexual harassment, sexual violence and gender roles. Seventeen other students at the school have accepted a similar offer.
Teen arrested after posting nude pics of herself on MySpace
The 14-year-old girl apparently posted the X-rated photos because she wanted her boyfriend to see them, authorities said. It’s not clear whether he viewed the 30 photos, but a lot of other people certainly did.
The New Jersey girl, who has not been publicly named, was charged this week with possession and distribution of child porn. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helped alert investigators, the Associated Press reported. “We consider this case a wake-up call to parents,” Passaic County Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Maer told the AP.
While teen “sexting” by cell phone has become more common, legal experts said this was the first such incident on a social networking site that resulted in criminal charges.
Teen sex video sent to students’ cell phone
An Indiana teen secretly videotaped two other teens having sex and then sent the footage to other kids. Police began investigating after the embarassed girl in the video contacted authorities. The kid who made the video could face criminal charges, such as possession of child porn, WISH TV News reported.
The taping of the 15-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy having consensual sex occurred at a party on Saturday, according to a police report obtained by the Johnson County Daily Journal. By Monday, students at Indian Creek High School were viewing the video on their cell phones.
Other teen sexting incidents have been investigated by police nationwide, but nearly all have simply involved nude photos, not sex acts.
Teen commits suicide after nude photo scandal
Jessie Logan ended the relationship with her boyfriend, but the X-rated photo that she sent him in happier times couldn’t be stopped. After their break-up, the naughty picture of the Cincinnati teen went viral, passed to hundreds of other students. Harassment soon followed.
“They’d call her slut, whore, a skank,” said Lauren Taylor, one of Jessie’s friends, in an interview with WLWT TV News. “They’d say that she was just trying to be a porn star.”
In July, Jessie hanged herself in her bedroom. Her mother is now going public with Jessie’s suicide in an attempt to warn other teens about the dangers of sexting – and bullying. “She was being attacked and tortured,” Cynthia Logan said on NBC’s Today Show.
Jessie’s mom and friends say that she changed from a vivacious, fun teenager into a depressed introvert who skipped school. No matter what she did, it seemed as if technology would not let her escape embarassment. “When she would leave school, she would get on her MySpace or her Facebook, and then kids would be messaging her on that or texting her phone, people she didn’t even know,” Lauren said. Jessie’s cell phone was found not too far from her body, on the bedroom floor.
Photo from NBC Today Show Web site
Teen faces porn charge for texting nude pic of himself
The 14-year-old boy told a female classmate that he was bored. So to spice things up, he sent her a photo of his genitals, authorities said.
Now the Tampa-area teen is facing charges of transmission of porn by an electronic device, the St. Petersburg Times reported. He was arrested Monday and booked into the county jail.
The Central High School girl told her mother after she received the explicit text message on her phone, according to arrest records. Mom then told the sheriff’s office, and the boy was later apprehended at school. Read about other teen sexting incidents here.
Teen couple’s break-up leads to sexting scandal
A Wisconsin teenager willingly sent a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend when they were still gooey eyed for each other. But after the romance died, the cad promptly forwarded it to other kids.
This week, police asked parents to check their teen’s cell phones for the illicit photo of the 14-year-old girl, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Cops are going all out on this investigation — teens’ computers have been seized to see whether the photo was sent over the Internet, and there’s talk of booking the kids on felony possession of child porn.
“We know it’s a hard stance, but how else do we deal with this?” Waukesha police Capt. Mark Stigler told the newspaper.
This isn’t the first sexting scandal at Waukesha West High School. One couple exchanged nude photos to each other last week, police said. They were slapped with disorderly conduct citations, but didn’t face more serious charges because nobody else had the pics.
Read previous Minor Troubles coverage of sexting here.