Sports Editor
Sexting culture has taken a spike in involvement and there’s no denying it. The recent inappropriate pictures scandal that has swept through the halls of WA has put out a school wide awareness of the repercussions and dangers of engaging in sexting.
Examples such as this one hit much harder than any legal lesson we’ve had or foreboding warning from our parents – if we have gotten either at all. In the past couple of weeks, it has been shown that sending nude pictures and/or distributing them is a real crime with real consequences.
According to dosomething.org, a website dedicated largely to slowing down sexting, 40% of girls have engaged in sending nude photos. That is a number that is guaranteed to blow the minds of many adults, but when I, a student, see that figure, it doesn’t surprise me. In fact, I feel like that might even be a conservative estimate. Needless to say, there is a problem and that problem has gotten drastically out of hand, and not enough steps have been taken to prevent sexting.
Learning briefly in health class is not enough. I don’t mean to to knock our school’s health staff, but it is highly unlikely that during a sexting exchange teachers’ voices are in the back of students’ minds, especially if students only learned about the consequences via a quick and uncomfortable lesson. We hear time and time again that something as serious as sexting will follow us around for the rest of our lives, but what does that really mean? Such an abstract warning has obviously failed to be interpreted by the student body as a legitimate one.
Unfortunately, waves that are large enough to have a serious impact are caused more often when something this intimidatingly serious and important happens to people we know and see every single day. WA students are not educated nearly enough about these types of situations. Until recently, I had no real understanding of the laws involving sexual assault, harassment, etc. in terms of sexting, and parents are unlikely to have extensive knowledge of the subject either. As a result of the way technology has grown, it is resolutely important that students be aware of these laws. The school has a responsibility to effectively and aggressively educate students on the consequences that may ensue following their actions.
Students and faculty alike feel very strongly in a particular way in regards to underage sexting: uncomfortable. And that just builds upon the issue. Parents and educators feel too uncomfortable to educate students on the matter, and students feel too uncomfortable to listen to them. Both parties need to understand that an awkward hour of your life is a much better alternative than the hour you could potentially spend with your parents at the police station as you identify nude photos of yourself in front of them because you refused to listen in the first place.
We need to have the consequences and reasoning against sexting culture drilled into heads in an educational setting. Over three months ago, the school saw the most effective drug presentation that our school puts on from Chris Herren. There are powerful speakers on every life-changing issue whether it be drug use, sexting, and more, and instituting a “Herren Model” in regards to sexting might be just what our school needs.