WABASHA, Minn. — A family has gone to the district attorney for Wabasha County to stop bullying at the Wabasha-Kellogg secondary school. In a story first told by television station KAAL, the triggering incident occurred when a classmate AirDropped a photo of a ninth-grader, age 14 and naked, on everybody in the school cafeteria who was hooked in. The photo soon was everywhere with humiliating snickers. The school has 290 students. Child pornography charges are possible even though though the culprit was a juvenile, according to a source knowledgeable in school law. Her son, the mother said, had been unaware the photo existed. The AirDrop was December 5. The principal evidently confronted the offender and called in two police officers to discuss inappropriate behavior in select classrooms. But not until January 10 – 37 days later – was the offender suspended. The suspension, said the victim’s mother, was only five days. In the meantime, the mother told KAAL, the bullying and taunts escalated against her 14-year-old son. Finally, the mother decided the school was “unsafe” and pulled her son  out. About the culprit, she called the  five-day suspension too little too late . The mother asked KAAL to be identified in the news only as Angie. Meanwhile, at least five other families have come forward, albeit also anonymously, with tales of bullying at the school. Online dialogue has crescendoed.

Verbatim

Mother of targeted boy on the disciplinary action: “This is telling kids it’s OK to go take a picture, and it’s OK to AirDrop pictures in school. It’s OK to bully somebody for two weeks, bully somebody for years, and you’ll get a couple of days of vacation cause that’s exactly what Jim gave this kid — five days of vacation.”

Verbatim

Jim Freihammer, school superintendent: “Although this kind of behavior is not acceptable wherever and whenever it happens, the picture was not taken at school and it was not taken during the school year. As such, the District had no control over those initial actions. However, it was not until several months later that the picture was shared at school, making it a school issue.”