Mar 1, 2016 By Suzanne Elliott 2 min read

Peters Township police will charge a 13-year-old male at Peters Township Middle School with transmitting sexually explicit images stemming from an incident in January.

Peters Police Chief Harry Fruecht said the charge will be a misdemeanor offense, but he could not say what kind of punishment the minor will receive because the case is still under investigation and multiple people are expected to be charged, he said.

In late January, police began investigating a report where a male student at the school had nude and partially nude pictures of fellow female classmates on his cell phone during the school day. In one instance, a female juvenile had taken a nude photograph of herself, Fruecht said. The photos were taken off school property.

The male student who had the pictures on his cell phone was reported to teachers by another student, police said. It is against the law to transit nude photos of anyone between 12 and 18 years of age.

“The district will not comment on matters of student discipline or on the police investigation,” said Shelly Belcher, Peters Township School District spokesperson. “We encourage parents to talk openly with their children about the potential dangers of social media and the consequences of inappropriate uses of technology.”

Last October, the district held a technology safety forum at Peters Township Middle School about the darker side of social media that detailed inappropriate uses of technology and warned students about using their cell phones to shoot questionable photos.