I’m confused: A Pennsylvania district attorney says that, in prosecuting kids, “he is just trying to protect kids,” CBSNEWS.com reports. Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot told CBS that child pornography charges were the only ones that fit the activity of the eight Susquinita high school students involved in a sexting incident last fall (for more see my earlier post “Susquenita, PA, case: A parent’s view”). He told CBS something less severe might’ve been better but it would still need to “draw these teenagers’ attention to the wrongness of their acts.” But former US Rep. Don Bailey, a Harrisburg civil rights attorney who is defending the only one of the Susquenita students who “has not pleaded guilty to lesser charges, which would require him to take a class on victimization and perform community service” is “skeptical” that sexting by minors should be prosecutable at all. [Here’s similar coverage from News.AVN.com.] The CBS article also tells the story of a 19-year-old woman in the Scranton area, who, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing her former high school for invading her privacy and violating search-and-seizure laws. Because she was talking on her cellphone before the start of class one day and cellphone use wasn’t allowed in school, her teacher confiscated and searched it, finding semi-nude images on her on it. The phone then went to the principal, who sent it to a crime lab, according to CBS. [See also “Sexting primer for parents.”]
chenott says, protecting the kids? so lets wrongfull charge the students with a felony crime, label them as sex offenders? now that sounds like common sense….sorry chenott you cant prosecute based on “potential”….wow i bet this screw up of abusive power just boosted your political gain… those were some wide cracks in the floor of the bar assoc. you slipped through.. then we have the handling of the pics by school staff members viewing the pics all day trying to identify students frank and beans and other body parts, hummmmm ,this dog and pony show started in the morning..parents and police were not called in till end of school day….wow!!wow!!and wow!! here we are looking at two of the biggest screw ups on the east coast contributed by public school and legal system, where stupiity joined together as one to pursue and construe something that doesnt apply to minors period.’CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAWS” written intent is to protect the minor child from the adult predator, this can be proven with the legislative history,with that being said, just because a minor does something that may be right, wrong,or considered normal, does not give anybody the right of abusive excuse to act above the law !!the tables have been turned and the “naked truth is exposed” pun intended !!