Across the country we're seeing an outbreak of this "sexting" issue. Loudoun County is not immune from this. The question is what do we do about it. I believe that the parents need to be involved in the solution. I also expect that parents expect to be informed when the schools obtain information that their student is involved in this type of behavior.
When a school official finds out about it, what should they do: open discussion, counsel them, discipline them, notify their parents....these are all options, but none were done here.
In this case, the Assistant Principal, charged with discipline of the students, found out about it and didn't inform the parents of any of the children involved. In fact, he specifically told one student not to tell his parents.
Although he claims that he didn't know the identity of the young lady in the image, the evidence strongly contradicts this. At the end of the day, the sum total of his action toward helping these children was to do nothing, exempt keep a copy of the image on his personal cell phone for weeks, even after his supervisor told him to destroy it. That's irresponsible. It also raises specific questions as to why he retained the photo for such a long time.
-Jim Plowman, Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, Loudon County, Va.
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