Hackensack investigating report of inappropriate image of 6th grader Friday, January 21, 2011
Last updated: Friday January 21, 2011, 2:06 PM
BY MARLENE NAANES
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
Following reports that an inappropriate picture of a sixth grader may be being circulating electronically, Hackensack Police Department Youth Division detectives were on hand to speak to students during an assembly.
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ELIZABETH LARA
HACKENSACK — Investigators are giving students a three-day amnesty to remove any nude images of a sixth-grade child from their electronic devices after a student alerted authorities, the superintendent said.
The school district, law enforcement and the Division of Youth and Family Services are investigating a report that the image was disseminated on the internet to at least a couple of other children, including a seventh grader, said Superintendent Edward Kliszus.
In a letter to parents posted on the school district’s website, Kliszus and a police lieutenant said students may be using cell phones and emails to send images of real or simulated sexual acts and naked or semi-naked pictures.
Click here to read the letter sent to parents. “Often, students participate in the sharing of provocative images of themselves and others without realizing the potential consequences,” the letter said.
Kliszus said it is unclear whether the image exists, but the school district is sending a strong message to other students and notifying their parents. On Friday, the police department’s juvenile division is talking to students at the 5ive6ix School and the middle school, where the alleged victim and the seventh grader are pupils.
“We want everyone to know, clearly, that this is not appropriate, and parents have to be diligent,” he said. “It involved only one child, but one is too many.”
It appears that if the image does exist, it was not wildly circulated. The alleged incident occurred during the holiday break, but the school system was not aware of it until Thursday night when it was reported.
The school sent out a reverse 911 message to parents about the incident and will send an email and a letter to parents, telling them to check their children’s electronic devices. Parents should remove any inappropriate images, Kliszus said.
“We’re using this as a teachable moment,” he said. “Look at your children’s electronics and get rid of it.”
If any inappropriate images are found on students’ devices on Monday, they will be prosecuted, he said.
“We want to send a very strong message that this won’t be tolerated, and we want our children to be safe,” he said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to make our children safe.”
The alleged victim will be getting counseling, and the parents are involved, Kliszus said.
“We’re working together with our schools to find the scope and magnitude of where this went,” said Capt. Tomas Padilla. “We are taking a proactive approach to make this a teachable moment.”
Katie Kubler, a parent of an eighth grader at the middle school, said she is glad schools are having an assembly but said it's parents who need to teach children that such behavior is wrong.
"It's a conversation that starts at home," she said. "You can get kids together and talk to them all you want, but they need to hear it at home."
In early June 2008, seven ninth-grade boys at Pascack Valley High School were suspended for the rest of the school year for distributing racy photos of middle school girls via cell phones and school-issued laptops. A student who saw the pictures tipped off a teacher. The photos showed more than 20 girls and appeared to have been taken two or three years earlier, when the girls were in sixth or seventh grade. The girls were seen from the waist up in various states of undress, school officials said.
Psychologists have said the phenomenon of trading such photos reflects teens' impulsivity, with technology increasing the potential for long-term humiliation.
Staff writers Monsy Alvarado and Leslie Brody contributed to this story.
E-mail: naanes@northjersey.com
