Colorado teens caught trading nude photos
Hundreds of illicit images are found on at least 100 students’ cellphones
Students in Cañon City, Colo., could face criminal charges after an investigation found they were trading hundreds of nude pictures of themselves and other teenagers on their phones using special apps to keep the images secret, the schools superintendent said Friday.
The two-day investigation began Monday, and officials at Cañon City High School determined that students had been circulating between 300 and 400 illicit photos involving at least 100 students, said George Welsh, the superintendent of the Cañon City School District. Some of the students in the photos were eighth-graders, and several of the students who possessed the pictures were members of the school’s football team, Welsh said.
Capt. Jim Cox of the Cañon City Police Department said Friday that no arrests had been made in the case.
Welsh, who arrived at Cañon City from another Colorado district four months ago, said that many school officials had not been “very good at targeting what’s appropriate with personal use” when it comes to students’ devices. The high school has about 1,000 students in grades 9 through 12, in a district with about 3,800.
Welsh could not say how many students were involved in the photosharing ring. But officials were able to determine that some photos had been taken on school property, in a locker room. The school canceled the football game scheduled for this weekend. The decision was made after football coaches said they could not confidently put players from the 45-player varsity squad on the field without knowing how many students had been involved, Welsh said.
Had Cañon City won the game, the team would have tied for the league championship.
Welsh said that several students had been suspended but would not say how many or if they were affiliated with the football team. No students have been expelled, he said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the school said the investigation had stemmed from student reports and a tip left with Colorado’s Safe2Tell program, which allows students to anonymously report threatening behavior. Students have said that the photo-sharing was widespread and occurred over a long period of time.
After the news broke, parents turned out in large numbers Thursday night at a community meeting with school and law enforcement officials. Some asked if their children could face criminal charges for sending a photo, as opposed to keeping or distributing the material. Fremont County District Attorney Thom Ledoux told them that an underage student who sent an illicit photo could be liable, as could someone who kept the picture or sent it to someone else.