KARNS CITY, Pa. — An inappropriate photo of a 13-year-old female student of the Karns City Area Junior High School was posted to TikTok, and now state police are investigating who took the photo and who posted it.
Superintendent Eric Ritzert of the Karns City Area School District said school officials were told about a naked photo of a junior high student that was posted to TikTok on Tuesday.
“Once we were made aware of that situation, we reached out to state police in Butler, that’s the jurisdiction of police for us, and notified the ChildLine, which we’re required to do, and notified all the parents of the students involved of the situation,” Ritzert told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek.
The photo wasn’t taken on school property. But, Ritzert said the girl’s friend did the right thing by reporting it to the school’s officer.
“That shows that they trust the school police here, and they should,” Ritzert said.
State police are actively investigating the situation and looking into who took and posted the photo.
Ritzert said it is a good reminder for parents to be more aware of what their kids are doing online.
“Hopefully the images can be removed, as much as possible, but this should serve as a learning lesson that all of us as adults need to have the conversation with our children to make sure they understand the seriousness of not doing something like this,” Ritzert said.
Dave Blair, a father with two kids at Karns City High School, agreed.
He said he’s happy with how the district is handling this and is happy students feel comfortable reporting issues to the school.
“I’m glad our resource officers, our administration, and our staff in general are able to have students come to them with a problem,” Blair said. “I know that’s been a problem in the past where they’re not reporting when something happens in school, but if they’re going to come to them when something happens outside of school? That’s even better yet.”
The superintendent said they are going to look at some sort of education district-wide about the dangers of social media. Blair thinks it’s a good idea.
“I would like to see them do something if they’re not already, do a little bit more,” he said.
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