

At home she retreated to her bedroom, alone with her cellphone and computer. As the animosity between the two girls escalated, Margarite felt shunned by an entire group of girls and was eating lunch by herself. The flick of a cutting remark, swiftly followed by “Just kidding!” The eye roll. In the shifting power dynamics of middle school girls, the former friend understood well that she who sneers first sneers best.

Her parents, recent immigrants, speak limited English and were not able to supervise her texting. Margarite’s former friend is tough and strong-willed, determined to stand out as well as fit in, according to those who know her. This girl would be the one who would later brand Margarite’s photo and forward it.

A good friendship with a girl had soured, abetted by a fight over a boy. Her relationship with her father’s new wife was tense. In the fall of 2009, Margarite, a petite, pretty girl with dark hair and a tiny diamond stud in her nose, was living with her father, and her life was becoming troubled. “Having a naked picture of your significant other on your cellphone is an advertisement that you’re sexually active to a degree that gives you status,” said Rick Peters, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney for Thurston County, which includes Lacey. For teenagers, who have ready access to technology and are growing up in a culture that celebrates body flaunting, sexting is laughably easy, unremarkable and even compelling: the primary reason teenagers sext is to look cool and sexy to someone they find attractive.
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Only then would the community try to turn the fiasco into an opportunity to educate.Īround the country, law enforcement officials and educators are struggling with how to confront minors who “sext,” an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another.īut adults face a hard truth. In short order, students would be handcuffed and humiliated, parents mortified and lessons learned at a harsh cost.
