School officials being investigated for handling of images in 'sexting' case

Seven students involved in a sexting case at Susquenita High School last year are facing felony charges. Now, based on parents’ complaints, the administrators who caught them might face their own consequences, creating another murky legal issue in the largely untested intersection of children, technology and pornography.

Susquenita High School officials are being investigated after parents claimed pornographic images and videos from cell phones confiscated from students were “passed around” and viewed by more than just those administrators who investigated the incident.



“Of course, one or two people had to see the images to determine what they were,” Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot said. “But if more than one or two top administrators saw them, there better be a good reason why.”

School employees could be charged with displaying child pornography — the same charges the students involved face — if they showed the images to people not involved in the investigation, Chenot said.