Atlanta schools, parents and law try to deal with sexting

By Jeffry Scott

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The seventh-grade girl at Cumming's Liberty Middle School sent the nude photo of herself by cell phone to three boys at three middle schools in Forsyth County.

The 10th-grade boy at Forest Park High School sent the naked image of himself with his phone to a 16-year-old girl at his Clayton County school and it was forwarded to four other students, one of them 14.

The girl and boy were punished the same day last month in metro Atlanta school systems about 40 miles apart. Their consequences were quite different.

The girl, a juvenile, was suspended for 10 days and told she would face a school tribunal and might be expelled or sent to an alternative school. The boy, Malcolm Radcliff, 17, and an adult under Georgia law, was arrested at school, charged with the misdemeanor of furnishing obscene material to a minor, spent a night in Clayton County jail and was released the next day on $2,000 bond.

They were caught “sexting” -- sending nude photos by text message -- a phenomenon that has infiltrated school systems and involved law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in Georgia and across the nation, and left them unsure yet how to stop and how to punish the behavior.

Radcliff said this week he sent the naked picture of himself as a joke. Only now does he recognize the repercussions could be serious and last for years.

“I planned to go to college, but, if something like this is left on my record, I might not get in a big school," Radcliff said. "I might have to go to a community college or no college at all. I know it’s going to follow me.”

A few days after Radcliff's arrest, Lois Woods, the Clayton County solicitor’s office investigator, intimated this might be  a test case when she said, “He could become the poster child for sexting-- and that might not be a bad thing.”

However last week, Clayton solicitor general Tasha Mosley said she wouldn't pursue prosecution if Radcliff volunteered for community service. "He's shown remorse," she said. "What he did was stupid. This is a way to dispose of the case without a lingering record."

Yet across the state, schools and prosecutors have struggled in how to deal with sexting. Under state sex statutes, written before cell phones and the Internet, they are bound to treat the behavior as child pornography which, according to details of each case, can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony.

Last month two eighth-graders were caught sexting at The Lovett School in Buckhead. One was suspended, the other left the private school. The case was investigated by Atlanta police, but school spokesperson Kim Bass said this week the students were not charged.

If convicted as a felony, the sentence is a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison, and the person’s name is placed on the Georgia sex offender registry for at least 15 years.

This is behavior, some have argued, that's no more of a crime than streaking was three decades ago when college students ran naked across campuses and through towns and were seldom arrested or prosecuted.

In at least 14 states, including Florida, Connecticut and Arizona, legislatures are considering rewriting sex laws to update them and separate sexting from child pornography, and make punishments less severe. (In Georgia, it’s not illegal for consenting adults to send naked pictures to each other on electronic devices.)

Florida state Sen. Dave Aronberg, running for attorney general, is supporting a bill in that state's legislature to decriminalize sexting and punish it as a misdemeanor with a $60 fine, or eight hours of community service.

“There has to be some punishment because the state has a compelling interest to keep naked pictures of children off the Internet,” he said. “But, right now, police and prosecutors are reluctant to enforce [the laws], they’re so draconian.”

J. Tom Morgan, former DeKalb district attorney and an expert on Georgia child law, gives seminars on this subject to parents and students at schools across the state. He tells them several Georgians have been prosecuted under the current law and are on the state sex offender registry.

The teens on that list have great difficulty getting jobs or into colleges. Morgan has represented some of those teens and currently is working on behalf of a high school senior, 17, in a case pending in Cobb County. He has declined to identify them.

Georgia law is so conflicted it’s legal for teenagers to have sex at 16, but those same teenagers can be arrested for sending naked pictures to each other.

"If a 17-year-old girl takes a nude picture of herself and sends it to her 18-year-old boyfriend she is technically guilty of child pornography and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison," Morgan said.

Morgan has addressed Georgia legislators about the need to rewrite the state’s sex code. A bill was introduced this session to give those listed on the sex offender’s registry a chance to appeal, under certain circumstances, to a judge to have their names removed.

There's been no effort to change the punishment for sexting. “Legislators don’t want to appear soft on crime,” Morgan said.

One of five teens has admitted sexting, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. It's impossible to say how much of that takes place during school hours. In the Radcliff case, he took the photo at night and the girl was caught showing it at school.

The Georgia Department of Education doesn't track sexting offenses. They fall under sexual harassment, disorderly conduct or other violations, spokesman Matt Cardoza said. Officials at three of the major school systems in metro Atlanta, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett, couldn't confirm a single case of sexting this past year.

Forsyth schools have had five recent sexting cases, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciola said. Atlanta Public Schools had one. Clayton schools had two. Parents only now have become aware of the phenomenon.

“When I found out about it, it was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know this was going on, this kind of promiscuous behavior,'” said Debbie Worthington, a Forsyth County mother of two students active in anti-drug and anti-alcohol school programs. “But I can see with the kind of peer pressure kids have in school how a girl might feel compelled to do something like this to get attention."

Cyd Cox, president of the Clayton County Council of PTAs, said her group is meeting with the solicitor’s office to formulate an education program for parents and students about school codes of conduct and the dangers of sexting and violations of state law. Clayton schools’ cell phone policy, similar to other school systems, forbids students from using the devices during school hours. “But that doesn’t mean your child can’t send them to another student after school,” Cox said.

Tracking sexting remotely with technology is difficult. The student typically has to be caught in possession of the cell phone with the photo on it. Since students can't have their phones turned on during school, it presumably takes another student telling on them for teachers to find out.

“The truth is, we’re not going to find out somebody is sexting unless our students report it,” said Chantel Mullen, dean of student discipline and affairs at Atlanta Public Schools. “So, as an incentive for them to report, we don’t punish students who receive the pictures and don’t forward them.”

The GDOE doesn’t have a recommended policy for state schools to prevent or punish sexting. “We consider that a local school issue,” Cardoza said. Most, however, follow the same guidelines: Don’t forward it, and report it and you don’t get punished.

The three Forsyth County boys were not disciplined for receiving a nude photo of the seventh-grade girl because they didn't forward them. In the Clayton case, the girl who received the naked image forwarded it and was suspended from school for three days.

Clayton and other metro school systems are stepping up efforts to educate parents and students about the perils of sexting. Cobb schools distributed 100,000 Federal Trade Commission pamphlets on the Internet and cell phones to every student and parent with children in the school system.

The message is different than it was a few years ago, said Patti Agatston, a psychologist who runs the Cobb program. “In the old days we emphasized being safe by being careful with what you download,” said Agatston. “It's a two-way street now. Now you have to think about the consequences of what you upload."

Malcolm Radcliff’s record will be erased once he goes through community service. However, his memory of a night in Clayton County jail, getting treated no differently than the other criminals, likely will stick with him for a long time, said James Tukes Sr., his older brother and legal guardian. 

“It’s a lesson learned," Tukes said.