At the end of the 2014-15 school year, upper-middle-class controversy struck Westford Academy: administration discovered that certain members of the school community had established a syndicate of sweet talkers who solicited nudes from various females in the grade and shared their photos in a GroupMe chat.
After confiscation and careful probing of the 148 explicit photos, administration identified each of the girls involved by their distinct moles and skin tones. However, after penetrating the depths of the evidence, the investigators decided not to act on the information collected. Though nobody was prosecuted for dissemination of child pornography, guidance urged the student body to learn from this fiasco. Warning that this risk befalls anyone who “fails to set a passcode for their phone,” guidance accused the culprits of a “total disregard for the privacy settings of photo sharing apps.”
The administrative technology expert voiced their opinion in a private interview: “I think the real issue here is technology education. GroupMe is a messaging app first and a photo sharing platform second. As soon as we saw the messages, we had evidence of premeditation and careful planning. They really should have considered using something with better security and access controls, say Google Docs or Dropbox.”
Eyewitnesses echoed this sentiment, arguing that a platform with higher quality photo storage would be superior. “This is disgusting. I mean, look at that pixelation. This photo barely fills up my retina display,” lamented one anonymous onlooker.
“We made a horrible mistake,” confessed syndicate member Joe Francis Jr., “if I knew how easy it was for administration to see what we were doing, I never would have signed up with my real name. I feel terrible. Just think of all the guys whose reputations are ruined.”
One of Joe’s friends, who collected a total of 18 distinct nudes for the syndicate, expressed remorse for his actions. “Looking back, I can’t see how I could ever do something like this,” he explained in a private interview. “Honestly, how am I ever going to get anyone to send me nudes again?”
The culprits promised to use Google Docs in the future, in order to better protect the privacy of the boys involved. The administration has since moved on, turning their blind eye to more important issues like cheating.
