News that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office served four search warrants at a Parker high school in a suspected “sexting” case was jarring.
The sheriff’s office took at least four cellphones belonging to students and will be searching them for sexually explicit photos and text messages.
So is this a case of law enforcement overreach or a legitimate investigation into a serious crime? From where we stand, it’s hard to know without more facts about the alleged crimes.
We presume authorities have valid warrants obtained by presenting solid evidence of suspected crimes.
That wasn’t the case in 2007 in Boulder when a student accused of smoking was summoned to an administrator’s office.
After searching the student’s belongings, which produced no cigarettes, the administrator inexplicably searched the student’s cellphone. “Incriminating” evidence was found, and other students were called to the office so their phones could be searched as well.
That was out of bounds. We said so in a a few years back.
However, we wonder just what is alleged in the case at Dougco’s Chaparral High School. Is this another case of the criminalization of bad behavior that could be better handled as a school disciplinary matter? Reportedly, all those involved are high-school age.
State legislators have been working to realign school disciplinary policies in the post-Columbine era so that students are not funneled into the criminal justice system when their transgressions could be handled without involving police.
As we said, we are withholding judgment until more facts are revealed.
What we would hate to see is high school students charged with something as serious as distribution of child pornography for behavior that most people would consider inappropriate — the kind that gets a kid grounded for six months — but not criminal.
Regardless of the details of the case, one thing the episode provides is an opportunity for parents and teens to have a conversation about the potential dangers of “sexting” and appropriate cellphone use.
A 2009 study by the Pew Research Center found that 15 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 had received suggestive or nude images and 4 percent had sent them. That suggests the problem is not endemic.
But it can’t hurt to equip kids with the tools to make the right decisions so that their cellphone use does not draw scrutiny from peers, administrators or the police.
