Is LAUSD’s Cortines in Favor of Criminalizing Kids for Sexting?

So it seems. LAUSD Superintendent Ray Cortines thinks that school kids caught sexting—sending sexual photos of themselves or others via text message—should be turned over to the cops. And if that means the teenagers face criminal charges….Oh, well. That’s the breaks.

At least this is what Cortines told USC Annenberg graduate student, Deborah Stokol, when she questioned him on the topic of sexting for a terrific piece she has been researching since February and has just posted online at USC’s Neon Tommy.

We’ll get to what Cortines said in a minute. First the context.

Here’s how Deborah’s story opens:

Taking cues from their close friend, no doubt older and wiser at a wintry 15, the two 13-year-olds broke out their cell phones — T-Mobile Sidekicks, the only phones they’d ever possessed — and made themselves models for a time.

Raising their shirts, they used each phone’s camera to shoot close-up shots of their breasts. Giggling, they watched their leader remove her underwear, place the mobile between her legs and take photos. Armed with phones now storing salacious snapshots, they prepared to go out.

Too young to gain entry into more-mainstream clubs, they settled for the 17- and younger disco a few blocks away. Mid-dance, the 15-year-old met a man she liked.

“She didn’t know him,” one of her friends, a heavy-set girl with a raspy voice, said. “But they started talking. She had a Sidekick. He had a Sidekick. She had low self-esteem, so she sent him a picture of her titties.”

“He kept asking her for more,” she explained. “So she sent them, and he sent her pictures back.”

And each photo sent thrust the correspondents further into possible criminal roles — unwitting ones or not.

Sexting — the combination of the word “sex” with “texting” — denotes the sending of illicit photos via text message. And it can be a felony. Federal law partially defines child pornography as the “production of such visual depiction[s] [that] involve the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.” It stands to reason that texting out prurient photos of a minor counts as child pornography, but that could be the case even should that sender (and receiver) be a minor as well.

Indeed, as sexting has become increasingly popular among a significant percentage of adolescents, there have been some controversial prosecutions, like the case in northeastern Pennsylvania in which a DA was blocked temporarily by a judge from pursuing pornography charges against three teenage girls who had sent racy pictures of themselves to classmates. And there is the Florida teenager who, after a spat with his girlfriend, in a late night fury sent the photo she had texted to him around to her friends. A prosecutor filed criminal charges and now the kid must register as a sex offender along with hard core child molesters.

So what did Ray Cortines, the head of the nation’s second largest school district, think LAUSD’s stance on sexting and prosecution should be?

Good question, thought Deborah Stokol. Here is what she found:

L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines acknowledged that he had never heard of the phenomenon until he read a recent article and had been contacted by this reporter. In a phone interview Cortines said a policy should be developed so that principals know how to address the issue and that students are fairly warned of the consequences.

“If there was an issue, and it was discovered at a school,” Cortines said, “the local superintendent would probably take care of it, but I would also be made aware of it.”

Explaining that he had never until now really heard of sexting, and that he would have to figure out what his — and the school district’s — general approach should be towards the act and its sexters, he said, “You’ve raised an issue with me. What should be our policy? We have a responsibility to communicate what our policy is, and we have not done that. Students and parents should be notified.”

When asked what he would do when faced with a sexting situation, he replied that he supported the idea of alerting the authorities, even if that action might lead to a student receiving serious punishment.

“I encourage people not to use their judgment, but to report a problem,” Cortines said. “The police should make the decision. If they feel it’s worthy [of trial], then it is. I’m probably more stringent that I should be, but I err on that. Too many minors have gotten into trouble.”

“But,” he continued, “knowing that they could be charged with child pornography wouldn’t change my decision. Parents and law enforcement should be notified.”

Oh, great.

(There’s lots more. So be sure to read the rest.)

I asked Deborah how she came to report on this issue that has been pretty much ignored by the local media, and how she got so many kids to talk to her about a sensitive subject. Here is what she said:

(Her words are after the jump)

I first got the idea to write about “sexting” back in February after reading about the Cape Cod teens caught doing so by their principal (who then handed them over to the authorities).

Sexting is big. No one really seems to know—or be able to quantify—how prevalent it is. I kept reading more and more stories about it cropping up all over the country. But I didn’t see many stories that addressed the point of view of the sexters themselves (unless those kids had been caught and had already talked to the police), were feature length or that focused specifically on sexting in Los Angeles.

I admit I felt sleazy leaving messages with the word “sex” in them for school principals about minors. Not surprisingly, those same principals were reluctant (or simply unable) to allow me access to classrooms. But I didn’t really think it would be as difficult as it turned out to be.

Facebook actually ended up being remarkably helpful, as a status update asking if anybody worked in LAUSD, or knew someone who did, yielded an exciting number results.

Few teachers and deans and principals I spoke with (I think I reached about eight of the schools of the 10 to 12 schools I called) had heard of sexting or those cases covered in the news. While the teenagers I spoke with were not familiar with the term “sexting,” they knew exactly what it meant. When I defined it for them, they giggled or made jokes, some saying they’d done it, others that they had seen such pictures spread through the school. None of them knew it was illegal. I was perturbed.

It’s been a bit since I was a teenager. But I have to say adolescence doesn’t at all feel distant enough for me to be appalled that kids would do this. I could comprehend an initial reaction falling along the lines of ‘it’s really nobody’s business. This doesn’t lead to disease or pregnancy.’ Yet, at the risk of sounding like a moralist, I do find sexting among minors fundamentally problematic. We live in an age where little to nothing you do electronically can be erased. There are ways to salvage any of those records. Accountability starts from near infancy.

So, at the end of the day, that “sext” is an indelible mark or brand. And that brand could adversely affect the kid’s future job prospects, could land on some truly insidious porn site or even get that child raped or kidnapped. Who knows? A text can be forwarded infinitely. And who would track down the random middle people or go-betweens texting it for the fifth or sixth time out of 600? And why bother? Should the kids be punished? I would say absolutely not. It’s just ludicrous. Were an adult, say a 28-year-old, be sexting a 16- or 17-year-old, that would be a different story. The 28-year-old would be the felon here. I still wouldn’t punish the 16-year-old. I don’t know that phone companies include any of these possible consequences in the fine print, but I also don’t think doing so would solve anything. Maybe it comes down to the parents. In some situations, though, there aren’t any—at least not those who would concern themselves with sitting their children down and explaining the dangers of doing something like this, legal or otherwise.

At the end of the day I think it comes down to knowledge. Until the law changes (perhaps it will have to?), schools and phone companies should spell the possible consequences out for parents and their kids. Principals should make this a family-oriented matter that at most stays within schools. Unless one of the sexters is an adult, or the instance smacks of something dangerous, why call the police? Counselors should talk to those involved. If their sexting stems from self-esteem or body image concerns or from trying to please a guy, that is not a legal issue, but a psychological one. And left unchecked, that kind of internal problem could lead to something worse.

Sexting is irresponsible and alarming, but it shouldn’t be the kind of thing for which a 13-year-old should face porn charges.

Agreed. And Brava! Deborah, for the fine article that illuminates the sexting problem.

(Photo from ABC News)