Colo. students caught trading hundreds of nude photos

‘Photo vault’ app on phones reportedly used to hide actions.

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 superin- tendent said Friday.

In a two-day investigation that began Monday, 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 said that the students had been using a “photo vault” app on their phones to hide activity from parents and teachers. The app looks like a calculator. After questioning the students, school officials and parents were able to figure out how the app worked and unlock the photos, but not without some fumbling around.

Welsh, who arrived at Cañon City from another Colorado district four months ago, said many school officials had not been “very good at targeting what’s appropriate with personal use” when it comes to students’ devices.

Welsh could not say how many students were involved in the photo-sharing ring. But officials were able to determine that some photos had been taken on school property, in a lock- er room. The school canceled the football game scheduled for this weekend after football coaches said they could not confidently put players from the 45-player varsity squad on the field without knowing how many had been involved, Welsh said.

As in many small towns, high school football is important to the city of 16,000. The decision to cancel the game and put the 100-student program out of commission was not easy, Welsh said.

Welsh said several students had been suspended, but would not say how many or if they were affiliated with the football team. No students had been expelled, he said.

Officials were still trying to determine if the photo-sharing involved coercion or intimidation. 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.