Police investigating sexting scandal at local high school

EASTON, Mass. — Easton Police are investigating a sexting case at Southeastern Vocational Regional High School.

At least one minor has been identified in the nude photos, which could lead to criminal charges of a high school student. The superintendent tells Boston 25 News the first thing they did was notify police since sexting among young teens could turn into a child pornography case.

One mother we spoke with says her daughter is a victim in this case.

"They're trading them amongst themselves like baseball cards," she said.

The mother, who did not want to be identified, says a student at the high school is sharing nude photos of minors with other boys. She says some of those photos are of her 15-year-old daughter.

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"He was actually pressuring her, he said all the right things that a predator or somebody that's grooming their victim would say."

Now, this mother says her daughter missed the last few days of school trying to avoid the student who is accused of sharing the inappropriate images.

"It's happening in every school, you know that's the reality. The question is are you gonna deal with it or are you gonna pretend that it's not and we're gonna deal with it," Superintendent Lou Lopes said.

Lopes says as soon as they heard about the sexting scandal, they contacted Easton Police and the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

"They're minors, so if they send inappropriate pictures, you know that is considered child pornography and having the pictures is considered possession of child pornography," said Lopes.

If a student shares those nude photos of the minor, that could be the distribution of child porn - or a felony charge. Lopes says students on both sides of this case could be at fault.

"As soon as you make that decision, you can't take that back," he said.

He says the investigation is ongoing and he cannot say which students may be punished.

But the mother we spoke with says she wishes the school would be more transparent and notify all parents about the problem.

"At least if they have the notification, they can have that conversation, and try to identify it before they get the phone call I got," she said.

The mother says there are more victims that have not yet been identified.

Cox Media Group