Wyckoff Police Talk to Eisenhower Students on Dangers of Sexting

The Wyckoff Police Department put what they hope will be a period on the and all of Wyckoff last month when, as promised, they held an informational dialogue with all the students at Eisenhower on the dangers of sexting.

Wyckoff Police Sgt. Dan Kellogg spoke at Eisenhower during all three lunch periods last week telling them of the potential criminal consequences of their behavior and implored them beyond all else to respect their bodies. According to Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox "you could hear a pin drop" as Kellogg spoke at length about the criminal repercussion of exchanging explicit images with each other.

"The kids were very attentive," Fox said. "It wasn't designed to be a question and answer period. They were supposed to listen to what he had to say and they did. Hopefully we have conveyed the message to the school children that we intended to send, and the end result is making something good come out of an unfortunate error in judgment."

It was just last month that Eisenhower Middle School officials became aware that nude "sexting" photographs of a 13-year-old student were circulating through the school. The news prompted Fox to issue a temporary amnesty period warning students they were to eliminate any of the photographs that may be in their possession or face child pornography charges.

In the weeks since the incident Fox said he wasn't aware of any of the images resurfacing and that no students reported being bullied as a consequence of the photo circulating. "We're not aware of anyone that maintained this picture and that was the goal. The goal was to not have to arrest anyone, so in that respect we succeeded," Fox said. "Kids today can make a very quick mistake, so we wanted to take a bad moment and turn it into an educational moment. If the good becomes a bunch of kids now recognize I can't do this and I should think twice if I'm considering doing it, then that’s the good that comes out of it."

Fox said he also thinks the message got out to to their children's online activities.

"I think many parents saw this as a teachable moment with their kids and had that perhaps uncomfortable conversation with their kid about what they were doing online,” he said.