MASON CITY – Details are beginning to emerge about a “sexting” scandal that has rocked Mason City High School and police are involved along with school officials in rooting it out.
Sources have disclosed to NorthIowaToday.com that children’s lockers and backpacks have been searched, as police and school officials look for and then confiscate cell phones belonging to students suspected of disseminating or passing around or sharing what is described as at least one obscene or x-rated photo of a young female. NIT is told that the female took the photo of herself and shared it with one male student, who then shared it with another, and so on. NIT is further told that some students have been called into the office and questioned about the photo(s) and then cell phones were taken. Some students have went to great lengths to hide their phones once they got word that police and or school officials were looking to confiscate. One male student hid his phone in a locker room until he could get the phone out of the building. The main male subjects involved in the situation belong to a certain athletic team and were mostly underclassmen.
Sources tell NIT that school teachers are telling students in class that due to a law that was passed in the 1960’s, schools have the right to search and confiscate any property brought into a school.
Once the phones are taken, some or all of them have been sent to a crime lab in Des Moines for investigation. The phones then are “wiped clean” and some of them are given back.
NIT has reached out to Mason City police and School Superintendent Anita Micich seeking more information into this on-going situation that has students, teachers and some parents buzzing, even as the Mason City School District has remained mum on the matter.
This story will be updated as new information is sent to the NIT newsroom.
UPDATE, 11:12 AM, Friday Feb. 20:
ACCORDING TO MASON CITY POLICE:
“All the cell phones have been returned. No phones were sent to Des Moines. The only thing(s) that were deleted were pictures of child pornography. Many of the students had already deleted the photos once word spread that police were involved before the officers talked to the students. We also suspect that we did not get to all the students or phones involved and some of the child porn photos were disseminated possibly to others who may have forwarded them on, possibly outside our area. The case is still under investigation. No charges have been filed.”
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Technical point: Simply “deleting” a file from an electronic device does mean the file is gone; it can be recovered with software unless the file is over-written with new data. The storage area inside electronic devices will hold that “deleted” file data until it is re-formatted or over-written.
