Should the police be involved when tipsy teen girls e-mail their boyfriends naughty Valentine's Day

That is a million dollar question. Our justice system prosecutes teens with sex crimes and these teens end up on the sex offender registry for life.

why is this an issue? this is stupid. if I were a judge I'd throw this out. if I were a cop I'd arrest the teacher/principle for wasting my time. and charge them with violating these teens with sexual material.

This type of behavior has been going on for time immemorial to believe otherwise would be naive. Parents are better equipped to deal with the nuances of these situations than the judicial system and should be allowed to do so. Our society has become too politically correct. The idea that teenagers are transitioning into sexual beings, while accepted in the rest of the world as common sense, still seems to disturb much of our society. If we truly wish to improve our teenagers sexual health and safety we first need to acknowledge what is already apparent then as a first step to opening a constructive dialogue. Problems such as pregnancy, STDs, and sexual predators are exacerbated by ignorance.

there used to be the days when children feared the punishment of their parents (and no I do not mean abusive punishment) rather than the police.... I remember watching old Lassie and Leave it to Beaver shows and the police would catch the children doing wrong and threaten the children with telling their parents.... sure it was propaganda type scripts, but it was how things were in those days....

A crime by definition requires two things. A perpetrator and a victim. They cannot be the same. I cannot rob myself. I cannot rape myself. I cannot be the victim of child porn if I took a naked picture of myself as a child. Stop calling this a crime. There is no crime victim if a child takes a naked self photo and sends it to another child. There is a child demonstrating a poor choice and nothing more.

There are several problems,

1) In our sue-happy society teachers and others tend to call authorities to remove any responsibility from themselves. There is growing number of accusations and finger pointing causing innocent person’s life destroyed, who is responsible for that?
2) Where is the privacy policy? Why does the teacher have a right to check the content of the student's phone?

3) Parents have lost their rights to parent their children. Authorities, school administrators, and other officials have all of the power to involve other authorities, judicial system, force the children to take potentially fatal drugs to treat add/adhd because THEY think YOUR child needs them, or to made any and all decisions for the “best interest” of YOUR children with complete disregard to the family values, culture, family dynamics, child’s health, or any special needs your child may have… With VERY FEW exceptions parents are the best judge of their child’s best interest. The profitable federally funded industry will only flourish IF they will create the fear in all of us that there is an overwhelming treat. Fear, fear, fear will keep this corrupt industry going.

Every day we are exposed to the horror of the “freedoms” we are consistently told we have. Just open your eyes and you can not miss the fact that we have NONE. When and if it’s realized you will want to scream with all your mighty to get the attention of others who still think they live in a free country.

The police should not be involved! Once you have reached the age of 13, and have the ability to reason, you should be able to chart your own life course, without interference from society! You learn from your mistakes so how can you learn if society refuses to allow you to? its all about FREEDOM! Am 57.I left home at 15 because I was not allowed to make my own choices in life and faced with the same conditions I'd do it again!

Texting and most of the new technology methods of communication that are permeating our culture are simple making "normal" behavior more visible. The machines in between are making it easier for people and kids to assume there's no repercussions for their actions so they can be more promiscuous.

It's the same thing as alcohol but less damaging I suppose. I agree with most parents here about having a notice from my principal but keeping the police out of it. It's simple enough situation to correct without throwing the "criminal" element into it.

May your children grow up wise and aware.

Cheers.
Stradius

i wanna see some titties. i got all kinds of old pics on my cell. keep em comin!

My opinon is parents should be left to deal with their own, and within their own cultural circle and mores.

I also wonder, however, about legal ramifications.. under what conditions might a teacher be taken to court because they did not report such a thing to "the authorities" (who, it seems, play an increasingly greater role inside the family home)? I could imagine a teacher pondering this in uncertain fear... on the one hand, if you do report it to "the authorities" you most likely will have just dropped a horrible bomb on those families, then on the other hand, if something weird were to turn up during the familial handling of the situation and you were drug into it... what might be the potential danger for you?

If I were the teacher I would probably think... this is all a bit new, and parents should be left to deal with their own... and any authorities (if it came to that) would probably back me on that, for now anyway. But at some point I would not rule out some twisted situation where it becomes way more sticky than I would ever imagine.

Like I said, I see no harm in leaning toward following your conscience, and standing on that if/when asksed.

let the parent raise their own kids; not the government. This gets more air time than the tens of thousands of civilians innocently killed in Iraq :S

hey, as long as they aren't related...

TommyTooThumbs, exactly. Government and the judicial system have taken away parental rights and responsibilities from parents as well as it undermines the parental obligations.

If I were the parent of either child I wouldn't want the police involved. But you can bet your ass I would be having a SERIOUS talk with my kid.

This is a situation where the parents should have the chance to act as they see fit. If either sets of parents wishes to have police involvement then the option is still available. But if they involve the police then they must realize the situation is then out of their hands. Most parents would appreciate the discretion of the principle.

(a) call the boy's parents in despair
(b) call the girl's parents in despair

hmm...to be honest, even in light of that survey you cite, i still don't really know if sexting should be called "an epidemic." its just too reminiscent of sensationalized urban sex legends about jelly bracelets and teen sex parties. for some reason, american media has a fetish for crazy stories about sex and young adults.

on the other hand, if an incident does arise such as the one above, the administrator should call the parents and nothing more. its not like the girl was flirting online with an older man who could have been a molester. the parents should work it out between themselves and the children.