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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Ind. Law - "IPS wants to put an end to students' sexting"

Ken Kosky's NWI Times' "It's the Law" column June 15th, looked at "sexting" -- the ILB entry includes links to several earlier entries on the topic. Also of note is this March 27th ILB entry.

Today Andy Gammill has a front-page Indianapolis Star story headed "IPS wants to put an end to students' sexting." Some quotes:

Indianapolis Public Schools is drafting a new policy to ban -- and also warn parents about -- something that didn't exist even a few years ago: sexting.

The district wants to take a strong stand on students sending sexual images of themselves or others from cell phones while at school, said Barry Olshin, a central office administrator who headed a committee on the topic.

Many parents, Olshin said, don't know that their teens may be sending nude or other sexual images of themselves and don't realize the students might be committing a crime if they pass on pictures of others.

"We have been concerned about it for quite a while," he said. The district wants "parents to understand exactly what the law is and what the possible consequences are."

The School Board will consider a formal policy banning sexting and a warning to parents at a committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. today and likely will adopt a policy next month.

The new policy is being driven, in part, by cases the district has confronted, including one high-profile incident last year at Marshall Community School where students passed around a video of a girl secretly taped with a cell phone while she was having sex. In addition, the Indiana School Boards Association has recommended that districts address the issue. * * *

A survey last year by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that about a third of teenage boys and a quarter of teen girls say they've had private nude or semi-nude images of others shared with them.

Depending on the students involved and their ages, teens involved in sexting could be charged with possession or distribution of child pornography.
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Rocky Grismore, principal at Manual High School, said sexting has become an issue in the past few years as more students own cell phones with cameras.

He estimates that it comes up several times each school year, especially when students fight about images that were meant to be seen by only one person or a few people.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 19, 2009 09:54 AM
Posted to Indiana Law