A Massachusetts community is in shock after naked photos of students at Duxbury High School made their way onto the internet.
"This is totally inappropriate and not a way to treat young women, and young women need to have a better sense of themselves," Duxbury School Superintendent Dr. Ben Tantillo said.
The superintendent of Duxbury Schools spoke frankly Friday about the discovery of a Dropbox web page with inappropriate pictures of high school girls. He says some of the images on the file sharing site show his students in various stages of undress. There are more than 50 girls listed. He's not certain who is behind the site, but believes the girls in the photos knew their picture was being taken.
"We would hope that our young girls understand there are other ways to be popular. And the dangers of the Internet that some of those pictures, if they were taken by themselves or actually let the boys take them, that these pictures could go on for infinity," Dr. Tantillo said.
"These kids need to realize the long term ramifications of what they're doing when they do this," said Duxbury resident Chris Long.
"For a girl to be going through this and having a picture like that all over the Internet - I think something should happen to the boys, but I don't think anything will happen," said senior Christine Kates.
Staff at Duxbury High School notified police Wednesday about the account after a student alerted them. Now, police and school leaders are working with forensic investigators to determine who posted the photos and whether they will face disciplinary action at school and even criminal charges.
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"Moving forward, we're very aggressively taking a look at who exactly created this site," Duxbury Police Chief Matt Clancy said. "That person or persons will be hearing from us."
Throughout this affluent community, adults and teens are torn over whether those responsible should face consequences like having to register as a sex offender.
"I think it's wrong, but I think that they shouldn't be charged as a sex offender for the rest of their lives," said Duxbury High School senior Jane Brawley.
"I don't think they should be charged with anything," said senior Matthew Leonard. "I think the school should handle it."
"Make the punishment fit the crime," said parent Evan Sobran. "That could be pretty intense for a parent such as myself to see their kid going through that."
The police chief says any potential charges would depend on the outcome of the investigation.
"A number of these images, some ... there's nothing criminal with the images whatsoever. Some do show these minors in some level of undress, so obviously those are troubling and those have a criminal component to them," Clancy said.
