Dealing with sexting

The sexting stories coming out of the Kings Park and Smithtown school districts highlight the difficulties that parents and school administrators face with trying to protect children in an increasingly connected digital world.

In Rockville Centre, every student in sixth grade and up has their own iPad that they take home with them every day after school. They both work and play on their school-issued devices. And with built-in cameras, it’s easier than ever for students to record themselves doing something inappropriate and spread it around like wildfire.

It’s an incident that happened once at South Side Middle School last year. A girl had a photograph taken of her engaged in sexual activity with a fellow student. The picture was passed around the school — not on district-owned iPads — and came to the attention of administrators. Disciplinary action was taken against the boy who passed around the picture, and the police were notified, although their investigation did not lead to an arrest. It was the only time the district has had to deal with this problem — so far.

“If [students] are sending around pictures, we would certainly get the police involved,” said Superintendent Dr. William Johnson.

Johnson explained that the district’s policy is to approach each case individually as it arises. Other than notifying the police, there’s no blanket policy for dealing with children sending around explicit photos of each other.

“It depends what they’re sending and to whom,” Johnson said. “We have a judgment call that has to be made based on the facts.”

Unlike what happened at in the Kings Park district, Johnson said that Rockville Centre would be unlikely to suspend students for just receiving an explicit picture. The caveat to that is if the picture was received on a school-owned device. In that case, Johnson said, the student would have to report it to a teacher or administrator, as per the policy that the students and parents sign at the beginning of the year to receive an iPad.

“They’re informed,” said Johnson. “They know they’re not supposed to get involved with any of this type of activity.”

It’s impossible to completely insulate students from the Internet and the capabilities it provides. District officials and teachers continually tout iPads as being new and innovative tools for classrooms that are changing the way teachers do their jobs, and improving the way students learn.

“You want kids to grow into responsible adults, and that starts now,” Johnson said. “You know this stuff stays with them. It can get them into problems if they want to get into a school of their choice. Later on it can get retrieved by people who want to employ them, and may not. None of this stuff disappears.”