Sexting is a serious issue that needs to be addressed to students our age. On Wednesday January 23, District Attorney Christie Bonesch came to the high school to discuss the issue. But many students felt this assembly was unnecessary. I happen to share the same opinion.
The major issue I had with this assembly is that we have seen it a thousand times. We’ve had a sexting assembly almost every year since we’ve been in high school. We’ve all heard it before, and we understand it. Regardless of how many times we hear it, the people who are smart enough not to sext will continue not to sext, and the people who sext will continue to sext. An assembly every year isn’t going to change that.
In the presentation, Christie Bonesch gave examples of people whose lives were forever changed or ended because of sexting. Her first example was a gay person who was caught kissing a guy on a webcam. The photo was posted on Facebook, and he wound up killing himself. Don’t get me wrong, I feel terrible for the person, it was an extremely tragic incident, but I don’t see what that has to do with sexting. That seems more like bullying to me.
Christie Bonesch said, “I bet none of you thought you would be possessing child pornography when you took that nude photo.”
Well of course we knew that since we’ve had an assembly on it every year.
I felt like Ms. Bonesch talked down on us as if we didn’t understand anything about the issue or the consequences of the issue. I got the impression that she thought we were all totally ignorant, which is not the case, and I felt insulted.
“I think that the topic is important, but I don’t think we need an assembly on it every year,” senior Laura Coleman said, “and I thought it was ridiculous when she said that a picture could make you the new hot thing on YouTube. Pictures don’t go on YouTube!”
I understand the importance of this issue and that it needs to be addressed; I just don’t think it needs to be addressed every single year. I appreciate that the school is trying to make us aware and that Christie Bonesch took time out of her day to inform us, but I do not think it was necessary.
