Police investigate Holbrook 'sexting' case

March 30, 2009 06:31 PM Email| Comments (8)| Text size – +

By Michele Richinick, Globe Correspondent, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Holbrook police and the Norfolk district attorney's office are investigating a tip from students at the Holbrook Junior/Senior High School that a video of two students having sex was circulating via cellphone around the school, police said.

The "sexting" was reported Wednesday by the girl who was shown in the video, who became concerned after learning that a couple of her friends had received it on their cellphones, said Acting Police Chief William Marble. He said the video had been taken by a third person who was not shown in it.

The transmission of pictures from cellphone to cellphone dealing with underage people in explicit situations is a serious felony, police said.

"It's under investigation right now. They're working on search warrants for the party who took the picture's phone and anyone else in the school who got the pictures and disseminated them to anyone else, because that's a crime also," Marble said.

Police will work with the schools to hold assemblies to explain to them what the law is and urge them to report such messages if they receive them, he said.

"Right now, it's a police matter. So we have no further comment until that's completed," Joseph F. Baeta, the school's principal said.

Due to the ages of the students involved, police are not releasing any more information at this time, police said.

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8 comments so far...

Those two boys should go to jail to teach them a lesson, along with their parents as well.

Posted by Duke Nukem March 30, 09 04:27 PM

I am so sick and tired of law enforcement becoming involved in this. Yes, it's a problem, but child porn laws were NOT designed to deal with this and are not the appropriate way to deal with this.

Posted by BPD March 30, 09 04:49 PM

Hey Duke.. why the parents? What did they do.. buy them the phones? Geesh.. why not punish the media as well because OF COURSE that must be where they heard about doing this.

Let's just blame everyone while we are at it..

Posted by Blamemetoo March 30, 09 09:47 PM

I'm reminded of the obscene Polaroids kids took at parties when I was in high school. They sure made the rounds. Luckily there was only one copy and the school authorities then thought their role was to help kids reach adulthood unscathed rather than to ruin their lives with prosecutions.

Posted by DKB March 30, 09 10:48 PM

I agree with # 2. This behavior is damaging & should not be tolerated, but having huge legal consequences for childish behavior is both costly for the taxpayer & out of proportion to the "crime." More effective & rational would be to have letters/e-mails/assemblies where this issue is discussed BEFORE it happens (ie. beginning of every school year), letting kids & parents know that anyone engaging in this behavior will be dismissed from school for a specified period of time, expelled, etc. This may also prevent this from happening in the future, which is more important than kids make bad choices having to face huge legal consequences.

Posted by Eric Lindemer March 30, 09 10:54 PM

All people no matter the age should have consequences for their actions. Laws are in place to prevent "bad behavior". Many laws on many levels have been broken in this case. There are consequences for the choices they made. That's the bed they made...

Posted by Concerned Citizen March 31, 09 12:52 PM

What about girl in the video? I'm sure she is daddy's little angel. Blame the parents. These types of iincidents only occurs in "certain neighborhoods." Every week these types of stories are being reported all from the Suburbs. Every body is having sex. It starts a home with parents teaching sex educating since they will not allow the schools to do for them. All three of these sex freeks should face the same consequences. Stop blaming the boys!! It takes two tangle.

Posted by Justice4us March 31, 09 01:57 PM

OMG I really am annoyed with all this! Teenagers make stupid decisions in their lives yes but to charge them as criminals come on! I would have to believe the embarrassment these teens feel is punishment enough! They think its harmless but in the end they learn a lesson and yes that lesson is a hard one to chew but I don't believe they are criminals. Society has allowed children to be prosecuted as adults and I find this ridiculous in most cases!

Posted by D.W. April 4, 09 04:16 PM