Dover-Sherborn superintendent warns of "misleading" information in student photo-sharing scandal
A school district in Massachusetts is wrapping up an investigation into nude photos that they say were shared by a student.
The Dover-Sherborn superintendent says while they're investigating, misinformation is spreading in the district. A recent email from one member of the school committee to families has forced authorities to set the record straight.
Dover-Sherborn Middle School photo scandal
Dover police said they started investigating a photo sharing scandal at the middle school back in September. The case, police said, centered around middle school boys possessing and potentially sharing photos of girls who are their classmates.
In a statement Wednesday, Dover Police Chief Joseph Vinci said they "thoroughly investigated this matter, including interviewing students and their families and executing a search warrant for a forensic examination. All families of identified students were notified."
"Our investigation revealed that male students possessed and potentially shared images of clothed middle school girls from publicly available photos," the chief said.
"It was determined that one male juvenile student disseminated these photos of clothed students and included additional nude pictures of an unknown origin in these messages. The identities of the individuals in the explicit photos could not be determined."
Police said they worked with the Norfolk County District Attorney to pursue charges in juvenile court.
The Boston Herald then reported that a member of the school committee sent an email to families on Tuesday, suggesting child pornography was being distributed by the teens.
"Misleading" email
That prompted a letter to parents from Dover-Sherborn Superintendent Elizabeth McCoy on Wednesday, saying some of the statements in the school committee member's email "are not factual and could be misleading." McCoy did not specify exactly what was not factual or misleading about that email.
"The email refers to a matter that has been under investigation since last fall involving allegations of a few middle school students compiling digital photos of females we believe were taken from the internet. Some of the females are enrolled at our middle and high schools. The incident occured off school grounds and outside of school hours," McCoy said. "The Dover Police presented the case to the courts where it was dismissed by a judge."
At this point in the investigation, no students have been charged.
"In order to protect their privacy and confidentiality, we cannot provide any additional details publicly about this matter," the superintendent said. "The District remains committed to supporting the students and families directly involved in this case."
How to protect your photos online
WBZ-TV cyber security analyst Peter Tran said the best way to protect photos of yourself and your children online is to keep accounts private from the start.
"Once you go full public and then you take it back private there's no guarantee that those images are going to be taken back private, once you've gone public on the world wide web," Tran said.