School districts paint dark picture of ‘sexting’ danger

Ward and June Cleaver wouldn’t begin to comprehend the latest additions to student codes of conduct.

Don’t chew gum? Sure. Don’t fall asleep in class? Goes without saying. Banning “The Beav” from sending nude pictures of Wally’s girlfriend, Mary Ellen Rogers, to classmates via cellphone? Oh, my.

Times have changed since the ‘50s and ‘60s idyllic television sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” and perhaps no one knows that better than officials in school districts across the country. As district officials get ready for the coming school year, their planning includes measures to combat “sexting,” the provocative teen practice of sending racy photographs and video to friends and classmates via their cell phones.

The Houston Independent School District, the nation’s seventh largest school system, last week voted to add a ban on sexting to its student code of conduct. The district of 200,000 students became one of the first large urban districts to attempt to curtail explicit and permissive attempts at cyber-flirting.

Houston schools created the sexting rule because of concern from principals, and it will be in place when students return to classes later this summer. The possible punishments for students caught sexting range from a mandatory conference with a parent and administrator, to suspension for up to three days, to placement in an alternative education program, spokesman Norm Uhl said.

The Houston ISD code bans “using a cell phone or other personal communication device to send text or e-mail messages or possessing text or e-mail messages containing images reasonably interpreted as indecent or sexually suggestive while at school or at a school-related function.”

“In addition to any disciplinary action,” the policy reads, “phones will be confiscated and students should be aware that any images suspected to violate criminal laws will be referred to law enforcement authorities.”

In Bradenton, Fla., the Manatee County School Board implemented a similar sexting ban, noting in its student code that pupils can be suspended or expelled if they “post, send or forward to anyone else a nude or sexually revealing photo of a student person through the Internet or text message, or if you show such photos to other people.”

The district also warned: “You may be subject to arrest for violation of child pornography laws if the student in the photo is a minor.” A conviction in Florida also could mean a student would have to register as a sex offender.

Other school districts, rather than issuing bans, are working on programs to educate students on the dangers.

In Miami-Dade schools, district officials are developing one of the most comprehensive plans in the nation. Focused on prevention, they are shaping a policy that includes students, families, community members, state and local government and law enforcement. They hope to have a broad-scale plan for their district ready for a review by the school board by September.

Deborah Montilla, Miami-Dade’s district director at the division of student services, said that students must understand that a youthful moment of indiscretion eventually could wreck their lives as photos meant to be private are shared with strangers in cyberspace - possibly for years.

“In our curriculum, we want them not only to understand that those images are forever,” Ms. Mantilla said. “They think they are not, but they can be distributed to anybody, anywhere, forever.

“This may impact a student’s ability to get a job, join the military, go to college. It could destroy a current or any future relationship that they might have. It leads to risky behavior and sex crimes.”

School district officials in the D.C. area who returned calls for this article say sexting doesn’t seem to be much of a problem for them.

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