Girls sue DA who threatened them over bra photos

By | March 25, 2009, 10:16pm PDT

Summary: You know, writing about technology every day, you get used to a certain level of stupidity. But I’m pretty flabbergasted, no outraged, about this story of kids being threatened with jail time for “sexting.” So - check this out: The New York Times reports that 15-year-old Marissa Miller, a Pennsylvania cheerleader, was contacted by District Attorney [...]

You know, writing about technology every day, you get used to a certain level of stupidity. But I’m pretty flabbergasted, no outraged, about this story of kids being threatened with jail time for “sexting.” So - check this out:

The New York Times reports that 15-year-old Marissa Miller, a Pennsylvania cheerleader, was contacted by District Attorney George P. Skumanick, who said he had a nude photo of her on someone else’s cell phone. He threatened Miller and another girl with charges of sexual abuse of a minor unless she attended a 10-hour class on pornography and sexual violence.

Nude photo? Oh, there was a photo: one of Marissa and friend Grace Kelly from the waist up — wearing bras.

Jail time? For teens taking pics of each other with their bras on? Give. Me. A. Break.

The girls and their mothers felt the same. Rather than accept this bullying, they filed suit against the prosecutor and are represented by the ACLU.

“Prosecutors should not be using a nuclear-weapon-type charge like child pornography against kids who have no criminal intent and are merely doing stupid things,” said Witold J. Walczak, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represents the families.

“I’m simply giving them an option,” said Mr. Skumanic, a Republican who has been district attorney for 20 years and faces re-election again in November. “We’re not forcing anybody to do anything, Frankly, it’s sad to me that their parents don’t realize this is wrong and they should be encouraging them to take the classes.”

What’s sad to me is that prosecutors can’t tell the difference between kids experimenting with bodies and technology and perverts exploiting and abusing children.

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Richard Koman

http://government.zdnet.com/?page_id=3731

Biography

Richard Koman

Richard Koman is an attorney admitted to practice in California. As a technology writer since the mid-1980s, Richard Koman has documented the role of computing in the transformation of the graphic arts, the growth of the Web and the birth of the peer-to-peer phenomenon. He worked as a book and web editor for O'Reilly Media throughout the 1990s, editing several influential websites and numerous best-sellers. As a lawyer, as well as a tech writer, he brings a unique perspective to the blog's intersection of law, government and technology.

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RE: Girls sue DA who threatened them over bra photos
gjsterner@... 24th Apr 2009
About all we can say about the DA is "They walk amoung us".

I think he needs to stop all of the bra wearing ads on TV and in catalogs first. These girls are only imitating what they see on TV and in other advertisements. If it's OK to broadcast on TV then it must be OK for them to do.

This DA has his priorities in the wrong place. He needs to start with the moral foundation and lead by example instead of hitting on girls that are wearing more cloth per square inch than a bikini.

He's just demonstrated that he's just another dirty-old-man in a political office. He needs a taxpayer paid vacation to the beach.
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I agree, but what does it say?
TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827 Updated - 25th Mar 2009
The DA is clearly wrong, in these cases, but these were 3 of 20, the others who DID have nude photos on their phones..

For these 3, notify the parents and let them take over the discipline. What does it say though when 15 year olds in bra's is simply "mainstream". It is the boiled frog syndrome with society where everything is permissible, nobody can be held responsible for anything. 20 years ago, could you imagine a woman writhing on a stage singing "f*ck me" to 12 year olds is acceptable?

20 years from now, it will be a civil right that a teacher is not allowed to break up the sexual activities at the back of the room.

It was the same deal that 17 other students ? 13 girls and 4 boys ? accepted by the end of February. All of them either been caught with a cellphone containing pictures of nude or seminude students, or were identified in one or more such photos.
...
Frankly, it?s sad to me that their parents don?t realize this is wrong and they should be encouraging them to take the classes.
...
Mr. Walczak said the A.C.L.U. was ?assessing possible legal action against the school.


Yes, anything that champions zero responsibility, anything goes, secularization of the country, the ACLU is at the ready to help the erosion.

TripleII
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Erosion?
ccrashh2@... 26th Mar 2009
Nudity isn't pornography. Not even close. With an attitude like yours, women would still not be able to expose so much as an ankle without being labelled a "slut". Oddly, the Republican, and your, mindsets on this is very similar to extreme forms of Islam. Ironic, ain't it?
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Yeah!
MGP2 26th Mar 2009
Next thing you know, we'll have an attorney general draping large cloths over statues that show nudity. devil
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Give it up.
TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827 26th Mar 2009
Look at videos from the 80'sand 90's. Now we have soft porn for 12 year olds. Songs that say what I quoted above. Songs that celebrate beating "Ho's" that 50% of kids believe is "normal". Every boundary is being eroded. From a scandal and not ideal to a new "badge of honor", look at pregnant teens.

If you can't see it, you are not looking. Don't try to push me into some "Taliban" style attitude. Where morals and right and wrong are concerned, the entire country, led by the ACLU, media, Hollywood, it's all "OK" now, push the envelope.

TripleII
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Taliban style attitude.
Hameiri 3rd Apr 2009
We probably don't have any more teen pregnancies than we did 20 or 30
years ago.

They were going down after all.

We're not trying to push you into anything. We just observe that these
girls are wearing enough to cover them up according to western
attitudes. You seem to be closer to the Taliban than we are.

That's all.
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Stretching the law
John L. Ries Updated - 26th Mar 2009
The irony is that calling photos of teenage girls in bras and jeans "child pornography" is a variant of the sort of law stretching that the ACLU has been promoting for 30 years or more. In both cases, there seems to be much less interest in enforcing the law than in stretching the meaning of the law to fit the act (or law) one wishes to prohibit or punish (or legalize).

I'd certainly be annoyed if my daughter was passing around those sorts of photos, but what's pictured is actually less provacative than the bikinis most young women in the US have been wearing to beaches and pools since the 1960s.

Mind you, I agree with your comments about "pushing the envelope", but results-oriented jurisprudence is not the appropriate tool to push back.
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Why not leave parenting to the parents - I certainly wouldn't want to impress MY ideas on anybody else - hell I have a hard time following MY OWN rules. "Society" is a cloak to hide behind when you want to enforce your views but just can't quite find the 'nads to do it.
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I agree
Hameiri 3rd Apr 2009
I remember when the parent was respected. People knew instinctively
that the parent knew the child better than anyone.

In my opinion, it's this "government knows better than anyone" way of
thinking, that has eroded discipline in the home. If you are always
second guessing what a parent does, they get a little gun shy.

Teach discipline in the home, not on the street!

Freedom.... freedom.... freedom.... freedom!
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RE: Girls sue DA who threatened them over bra photos
angelisnight2000@... Updated - 25th Mar 2009
Things like that are stupid. Simply because you could get the same exact picture if they were at a beach in bikinis. Maybe we should just go about suing All of the studios for Child porn next. I mean, if that is what qualifies under this guy as something that should not happen. I think this country is getting more and more silly by the day.
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get him for revelling in child porn
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Ha! Already Happened!
medezark@... 23rd Apr 2009
There was already an instance where a Vice Principal was ordered by the principal to investigate sexting, had aquired some of the "sexting" pictures, and was charged!
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nt
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Dilbert had the right idea.
Hameiri Updated - 26th Mar 2009
That picture is made up of ones and zeroes. They are
perfectly harmless. Then, the DA comes along and organizes
the ones and zeros into teenagers with bras on!

It's the godless, dirty DA that's the pervert! Now, could you
please return my ones and zeros?
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When laws are weapons, instead of rules...
John L. Ries 26th Mar 2009
...then stuff like this is inevitable. My guess is that the prosecutor decided that a crime had been committed, but had trouble finding a law that fit.
Wow, like I was really surprised at this photo. It looked so much like all the other ads I see every Sunday in the Washington Post and their piles of brochures - like WalMart, KMart, JC Penny, Sears, Kohls, etc ad nauseum. If this is 'porn' then all those ads must also be 'porn' - soft or otherwise.
I am also a Republican but this guy is a complete waste of time. Get out of our lives, idiot, and go after real targets.
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It would be helpful if DA's were all inclinded to a more wholeistic view of their job but they are only human and if all you have is a hammer, pretty soon everythings starts to look like a nail.

I give to the ACLU, not because of their excesses but because of others excesses.
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The real issue isn't bras
lineone 26th Mar 2009
I?m often puzzled by school authorities? assumption that students have no rights. Legally it?s true. A school?s rights are pretty much omniscient on school property. But it does send the wrong signal. All of us, teenagers especially, can sniff-out injustice and hypocrisy from a mile away. The fact that school administrators would assume that they had the right to inspect the contents of a student?s phone without his or her permission, let alone notify a prosecutor of those contents, is really a sad , sad lesson in justice. If the student was using the phone in a matter inconsistent with school policy, the phone should have been confiscated and the parents should have been informed that they would have to retrieve it; the contents, however, should not have been perused by school administrators. It?s private property for heaven?s sake.


We want our children to be as responsible as adults, but we deny then the rights and options that come with being an adult. No, they are not adults, and we have to protect them, but we have to let them know that as parents we will trust them as long as they abide by the standards that we set forth; but implicit in that arrangement we have with our children is the assumption that we will indeed keep them safe and protected ? protected and safe not only from the obvious predators, but also those who hold academic, political or parochial power over them. Every parent should check their child?s phone for inappropriate material, but no administrator should have the right without the permission of the child or parent.

If we want our children to be to good citizens then we should allocate them the rights that citizens require.
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Kudos? to the mothers!

It is about time someone stops the government telling us parents how to rear our children. I agree, swim suites expose more than the picture being discussed however, a bra is still considered an undergarment.

The question should be; where is something like that appropriate? Face the facts, many people have taken pictures of themselves, partners, lovers or friends that would be questionable, but if it is kept personal and doesn?t leave the privacy of your home (and it doesn?t break any reasonable laws, and I say this because here they are trying to create a law about sexting here) it?s just a picture, share that with the general public and it becomes porn. Hypocrisy at work?.. You bet! You can look in any news paper and find models in a local store add wearing nothing but undergarments and I hear no one complaining about that being porn. To make it worse, you will also see children/minors in those same adds warning nothing but undergarments.

With that being said, I would be horrified to find pictures of my children floating around the cell circuit or the web. I believe the police or anyone for that matter has a responsibility to notify the parent(s) of such items but that is where it stops. Parents have gotten away from parenting and have moved in to the realm of being friends with their children. Police/government officials have no business in the field of parenting, heck they are unable to clean up the street or run the country now and they believe they know what?s best for our families?

Ground the girls for life (lol), tell the police to concentrate on the criminals and get on with our lives.
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Who is going to investigate Skumanic?
bored2tears 26th Mar 2009
It's always the public prude who turns out to have the kinkiest private life. It would hardly be a surprise if this Reichwing wackadoo turned out to be in possession of real child porn. Even if hs *is* sincere in his efforts, the man is a nutjob with no understanding of the true responsibilities of his job.
It may be pushing things a bit too far, but parents need to teach their children to be a bit more respectable. A simple letter would have covered it.
I have to say, making somebody take a class (because of personal matters) sounds a bit crazy!

Also a spelling error "no outraged, about this story"
no = not?

Great article!
Oh, for heaven's sake. Get a grip over there. DAs must have something better to do than worry about a photo of bunch of girls in their bras. And what a destructive attitude. You have some of the most prudish, oppressive attitudes to the human body over there in the US, along with some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies. Something is very wrong that's for sure, but it isn't the girls or their photo.
Why is it so difficult to learn that prohibition makes things so much more attractive, often with disastrous outcomes. Encourage people to be happier in their own skin and try a little sex education in school - that should help cut teenage pregnancies to levels found in countries like Holland and Italy where people have a much more relaxed and happier attitude to their bodies and what people see of them!
Or heaven forbid that some of you should stoop so low to try and learn anything from other parts of the world.
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Thank you!
MGP2 26th Mar 2009
You have some of the most prudish, oppressive attitudes to the human body over there in the US, along with some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies. Something is very wrong that's for sure, but it isn't the girls or their photo.

Is it any wonder we also have some of the highest percentages of sex crimes? It's a BODY. We're all born in them. The more you make it a mystery, the more curious adolescents are gonna be. And unfortunately, in the case of teens, by the time they get to see a body of the opposite sex, they don't stop at looking. This goes hand in hand with not teaching sex education in school. While I don't disagree with someone who says "It's a parent's job", but if that's the case, do your damned job before it's too late!
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The Old PERVERT!
Nahnot4ulol@... 26th Mar 2009
I think he is just pizzed off because thats all he could see! Like has been said here before go to the beach and see what they are wearing there! Doesnt he have anything better to do than play with MR Happy and ***** about a picture! Seems to me he outta be chasing CRIMINALS!
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Guess he doesn't go to the pool?
madrucke@... 26th Mar 2009
It was a stupid thing to do.

Granted.

But, I saw less flesh in these photos than I usually have to endure at the beach or pool...

To call that a "nude" or Pornography? Pleeezee...

Is this guy "sheltered", Naive or what? ? Sheesh...

The cheer-leader outfits are probably more risqu?

Mike Sr.
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Why are DA's appointed when it's so obvious they are retarded, ingnorant, or just plain stupid?

This cretin needs to move to saudi arabia, he would be much more at peace with the other fundimental morons.

Lets take back America from the ignorant moronic right wing cretins that polute so much of this once great country.
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what is he going to do this summer:
AtlantaTerry 30th Mar 2009
when millions of girls are sunbathing in their back yards or even worse - wearing even less at the beach???

Is he going to go after department stores for showing girls wearing bras in their ads?

The efforts of Mr. Skumanic are misguided.

Terry Thomas
Age 63
Atlanta, Georgia USA
Does this mean my morning post-coffee constitutional puts me in danger of violating the clean air act?
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Abuse of power in US governments
terry flores 3rd Apr 2009
The abuse of power by prosecutors and government agents is getting sickening, just as the former administration's justifications for torture and murder were. Combined with the draconian laws being cranked out every day by corrupt legislators, and we have a very sad prognosis for the future of our country's citizens.

Personally, I would like to see anybody in authority strung up for abusing their power or being corrupt. Maybe that would make them a little more cautious about doing boneheaded stuff like this.

But it won't happen until the situation gets FAR worse in the US, maybe to the point of Nazi Germany. Americans just don't care enough about their own country and ideals anymore.
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Abuse of power in US governments
Jeff7112 7th Apr 2009
The real government abuse is manipulation of the financial markets that result in taxpayers being owners of manufacturing and financial institutions.

What's going on here is just amusing. Someone in the government trying to keep your children safe. How stupid is that?

Just wait until they're unwed mothers, then we can take care of them. Before that is too soon.

Is there a difference between "Pushing the envelope" and "Pricking the Colostomy Bag"? Doesn't seem to be.
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Abuse by law
Altotus 9th Apr 2009
Abuse of citizens by law. Bad laws are good for politicians this prosecutor did not write the law even if you think he is a persecutor that well may be. Now who will fund my campaign to stop bad laws? Certainly not by stopping bad lawmakers then how would I justify funding a campaign to stop bad laws if a actual stop was put into place (like that could ever happen lol) and no bad laws were ever again signed. You voted for the fools. You have the choice of fool #1 or fool #2 thats it.Gee something wrong? You wont vote for a fool so that means that you wont vote at all?
Send him to a 20 week "abuse of power" class..then take a picture of him getting voted out..I decided to not reply with what I wanted to since I dont think zdnet condones violence
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OK, That's IT!
wolf_z 23rd Apr 2009
The principle the DA is using is so obvious! Why didn't anyone see it before it was too late???

Since the pictures would not have come to light without the school administration actively prying into the phones and literally violating the privacy of the students involved...

Then it's equally obvious that EVERY SINGLE DAY EVERY student is coming to school absolutely naked *under their clothes*!!!!

Arrest the lot of them for child pornography!

After all, what's the difference (in principle) between violating the privacy of an individual by snooping through their phone and snooping through their (worn) clothing?

None at all. After all, students have no rights, right? Schools are in loco parentis and prefectly within their rights to strip search every student in case they come to school naked under their clothes!

Therefore arrest the entire human race for child pornography and execute the lot of them. We must have Zero Tolerance for child pornography!

And execute the children first, because you know they're completely naked under their clothes and "everyone knows" naked=sex, right?

/rant

Some people should just not be allowed to run for office... (shaking head) Rank this guy right up there with the idiot from Missouri who claimed any adult playing Animal Crossing was a pedophile...

Sometimes I weep for the human race. I really and truly do.
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What People Will Do To Get Elected
Canticus 23rd Apr 2009
The DA in this story is coming up for election right? Also he has held this position for 20 years according to the article. I suspect that his actions have more to do with his situation than the girls he has been chastising. Going after them must have seemed an easy way to demonstrate his efforts in improving the morals of his constituents... Until they objected to this of course.
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Anyone looking at this in a professional office environment could get into hot water for the image attached to the story.
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About all we can say about the DA is "They walk amoung us".

I think he needs to stop all of the bra wearing ads on TV and in catalogs first. These girls are only imitating what they see on TV and in other advertisements. If it's OK to broadcast on TV then it must be OK for them to do.

This DA has his priorities in the wrong place. He needs to start with the moral foundation and lead by example instead of hitting on girls that are wearing more cloth per square inch than a bikini.

He's just demonstrated that he's just another dirty-old-man in a political office. He needs a taxpayer paid vacation to the beach.

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