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Seven Boca Ciega students take bawdy photos of one another and bring them to school. Six are charged.
By MIKE BRASSFIELD
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Seven students skipped class Monday at Boca Ciega High School, went to one of their homes and took pictures of each other naked, authorities said.
The teenagers went through a roll of film, posing with each other. They even brought the pictures to school.
They thought it was funny.
Police think it's a felony.
Six of the students -- four boys and two girls, all 16-year-olds -- were arrested at school Wednesday afternoon. The seventh student, a 14-year-old boy, was not arrested because police consider him a crime victim.
The photos showed the youths naked or partly undressed, posing by themselves, in pairs or in groups, fondling or kissing each others' body parts, officers said.
However, "they weren't committing sex acts on film," said Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Two boys and one girl were charged with sexual performance by a child, a third-degree felony.
Two other boys and one other girl were charged with a more serious second-degree felony, lewd and lascivious exhibition, because they posed with or photographed the 14-year-old, Pasha said.
Their names are being withheld because of their ages.
A school resource officer at Boca Ciega High found out about the photographs Wednesday when one of the boys told him.
"It came up in a discussion with one of the participants on an unrelated manner," Pasha said. "He said he didn't have the pictures, but he knew the girl who had them."
Officers confronted the girl at school, confiscated the photos, picked up everyone who was in them and brought them in for questioning.
"I think we were able to get to the photos before they became too widely circulated," Pasha said.
Officers said one student took most of the photos but also posed in some of them.
Principal Barbara Paonessa was in a school district meeting in Largo all day and didn't know of the 2 p.m. arrests.
"Oh my God," the principal said upon hearing the news Wednesday night. "Oh, for Pete's sake."