Maryland teens who engage in sexting can receive up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime sexual offender status for producing or possessing teen sexual content, the Pediatrics article noted. Maryland has laws forbidding revenge porn, according to. Other states punish teen sexting as a misdemeanor charge or with felony child pornography charges. Some states have decriminalized the production and sharing of teenage sexual content between teens, as long as the creation and sharing are consensual. Those factors include the age of the people involved, the explicitly graphic nature of the content itself and how widely the content is shared. The laws and their application depend on several factors.
state laws on teen sexting vary widely from state to state.
The principal's letter did state, however, that students could be subject to possible disciplinary action if their behavior was found to be "inappropriate for the school environment." It's also unclear if the alleged sex act or the reposting of the video constituted crimes. A student is believed to have recorded the incident, the aforementioned news outlet noted. Jernigan's letter didn't specify how many students were involved, their ages or the date of the incident. "An investigation is underway with school administration, our safety manager and the Baltimore County Police Department," the letter continued. "I was recently made aware of a social media post of a video involving Woodlawn High School students engaged in highly inappropriate behavior while in class," the letter said, according to WJZ-TV. The letter has only recently been reported by local media.
Upon learning of the video, Principal Jamel Jernigan alerted parents in an October 8 letter. The incident occurred in a classroom within Woodlawn High School, a school in the Baltimore County town of Gwynn Oak. A social media video clip reportedly showing two students having sex in a Maryland high school classroom is under investigation by school officials and legal authorities.