Author Topic: 'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer  (Read 1288 times)

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Offline Miss Mia

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'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer

It was an incident that began innocently enough, but nearly ruined the life and three-decade career of a veteran high school teacher and administrator.

Rumors had been flying at Freedom High School in South Riding, Virginia that students were distributing nude pictures of each other on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon, known as "sexting," that's become increasingly worrisome to educators across the country, and Ting-Yi Oei, a 60-year-old assistant principal at the school, was tasked with checking it out.

The investigation was inconclusive, but led to a stunning aftermath: Oei himself was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes -- charges that threatened to brand him a sex offender and land him in prison for up to seven years. Transferred from his school and isolated from colleagues, Oei spent $150,000 and a year of his life defending himself in a Kafkaesque legal nightmare triggered by a determined county prosecutor and nurtured by a growing hysteria over technology-enabled child porn at America's schools.

"The heaviest burden is the [label] of 'child pornographer'," Oei says. "It just hangs so heavy around me. How you ever recover from that I don't know. "

On Tuesday, Oei's legal nightmare ended when a Virginia judge threw out the case before it got to trial. But as the educator begins piecing his life back together, similar tragedies are unfolding across the country.  Reacting to the phenomenon of underage "sexting," prosecutors in at least a dozen states have resorted to arresting or charging kids for possession of child pornography. In a recent case in Pennsylvania, six teens aged 14 to 17 were charged with creating, distributing and possessing child porn. And this week a judge in a separate case in Pennsylvania temporarily barred a prosecutor from charging three teens for taking photos of themselves in their bras and a towel.

Even in this environment of prosecutorial excess, Oei's case stands out as likely the first to entangle an adult who came in possession of an image that even police admit wasn't pornographic, and who did so simply in the course of doing his job.

-snip-




Long article and this whole situation is pretty messed up. 
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Offline thundley4

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Re: 'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2009, 06:24:03 PM »
That is one serious case of over zealous prosecution, if not malicious prosecution.  I wonder if the guy could sue.

Offline jinxmchue

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Re: 'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2009, 11:49:05 PM »
This thread is useless without -- *sirens wail*  Oh, crap!   :thatsright:

Offline JohnnyReb

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Re: 'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2009, 06:35:36 AM »
This thread is useless without -- *sirens wail*  Oh, crap!   :thatsright:

 :rotf: .....me, you and Mr. Oei must have the same kindda luck.
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Offline NHSparky

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Re: 'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2009, 08:09:25 AM »
Keeping kids safe, I get.  Prosecuting kids for playing a digital version of doctor?  Not so much.  These prosecutors have gone around the bend.  Yes, I worry that this stuff gets in the wrong hands.  Yes, I worry that these kids are destroying their innocence way too soon.  So what are we doing by charging them with felonies for doing what many kids have done for generations; i.e., you show me yours...?
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