Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Last spring, the Mount Vernon High School administration made a commitment to parents to make sure their children had the facts about cell phone use and misuse. That commitment was honored Tuesday morning.

Assistant Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville, in four sessions, talked to all the students about the “10 things you need to know about cell phones and the juvenile justice system” because, he said he wants to keep the students out of trouble.

“I don’t want to see any of you down at juvenile court,” he said.

First of all, McConville said, each student should know the school’s cell phone policy. For a number of reasons, students are not allowed to carry cell phones on their person during school hours, and there are increasingly stern consequences simply for being in possession of a cell phone. The misuse of cell phones carries potentially harsher penalties, and may also be in violation of the criminal code.

McConville reminded the students of a case that came out of Mount Vernon High School last spring. It involved a number of juveniles who were trading pictures of each other not fully clothed.

“There were 13 students who were charged as a result of this,” he said. “I just want you to know that if you’re taking pictures of yourself naked, and you’re sending them to other kids, that is a violation of the criminal code.”

Point 2 was addressed to all the boys in the room.

“What is going to be the No. 1 thing that’s going to happen if you send a picture of your [genitalia] to some girl, and the girl’s mom finds it on her cell phone?” asked McConville. “She’s going to call the police. There is no better way to get your name in a police report than to do just that.”

Next was a message to all of the girls.

“If you decide to take a picture of your unclothed body and send it to a boyfriend or a friend ... if you send it to a guy, what’s the guy going to do? A guy is going to send it to three more of his buddies, and so on,” said McConville. “Self-respect would dictate that you don’t send these sorts of things out to anybody. There are future consequences that you might not even think about.

“Twenty-five years down the road you don’t want to be overhearing a conversation between your kid and your kid’s buddy saying, ‘I saw a picture of your mom naked on the Internet.’ It could happen,” he warned.

McConville’s fourth point dealt with the realities of electronic storage in today’s world.

“When you record something on your cell phone, when you post something to the Internet, when you send a text message to one of your friends,” he said, “basically what you’re doing is creating a permanent record for law enforcement. It becomes pretty easy for people like me, people like the police, to track this sort of thing down. For instance, here’s a text message situation between two kids.

“Kid A: Can you get me some dope? Kid B: Yeah sure. Meet me at the park at time X.”

“That’s basically all that’s needed to prove a drug trafficking charge,” McConville said. “It’s an offer of sale of drugs, and it’s very easy [for law enforcement] to get access to these text messages. You can erase text messages from your phone, but, just like a computer hard drive, those files are not completely wiped clean.”

McConville reminded the students that the police have the technology to download everything from the cell phone’s memory, and recover things that have been erased. He said a search warrant can easily be obtained if there is probable cause to do so.

Point No. 5 defined a term used in the MVHS cell phone case, harmful to juveniles.

“Harmful to juveniles. Interesting words,” McConville said. “One of the charges that can come from kids sending nude photos to each other by cell phone is disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. Does that really mean that people think it is harmful if you see a nude photo? No. What it means from a legal perspective is that this sort of activity is offensive to the prevailing standards of adults in our community as to what is suitable for juveniles.”

Pandering sexually oriented materials, point six, is a more serious charge, McConville said.

“This is a felony. If somebody, for instance, takes cell phone video of some sort of sexual activity that they are involved in, and posts it to the Internet, that is a serious offense,” he said. “The reason why is, sick people go out of their way to get a hold of pornography that features minors. And the reason there is such a severe penalty for this is that the legislature decided that’s the best way to keep kids safe. A felony like this, even on a first-time offense, will probably wind up with some detention time.”

Another legal point McConville raised related to the public records law.

“You guys probably don’t care at all about public records law,” he said to the students, “but what does public records law mean to you? If a case is filed in juvenile court, the media can request and can get your name because it is a public court case. If you commit one of these offenses, and the media requests the names, your name could wind up in the paper. Think of how proud your parents would be.”

McConville next discussed what is meant by the term reasonable suspicion.

“It’s a level of suspicion that’s lower than probable cause,” he said. “While law enforcement is held to probable cause, reasonable suspicion is what school administrators are held to. They have this lower level of suspicion where they can search your bag, search your locker, search your phone if they believe you are breaking any of the rules that are in your school handbook.”

Regarding the consequences of being charged with a cell phone offense, McConville said, “Probation is not a walk in the park. If you wind up on probation for some offense you commit, you could be subject to drug tests, you can be subject to search — you, your room, your car. You give up a lot of privacy rights if you wind up on probation.

In conclusion, McConville reminded the students to follow the rules. “I don’t want to see any of you ... [in juvenile court],” he said. “I want you ... to succeed and have a great year.”