Dear Parents/Guardians:

This letter is to inform you about some additional steps we are taking to educate students, parents, and our school communities on the topic of Sexting and Social Media. Sexting is defined as “when people take and send sexually revealing pictures of themselves or send sexually explicit messages via text message or social media.” Our school leadership teams have been increasingly concerned with the number of students engaging in this activity as it can threaten the safety of students, future college and career opportunities and in some cases, is considered an illegal activity.

We will be implementing an awareness and education campaign this school year using information and material from our approved Common Sense Media curriculum. Below, you will see links for parent education and awareness materials that we encourage you to review to both understand the issue and to be able to engage your student(s) on the topic:

Connecting Families: Sexting Handbook

New York Times: Teens are sexting, now what?

The Consequences of Sexting for Teens

http://www.crisistextline.org/

As you are aware, our Student Code of Conduct is a progressive student discipline model, one that attempts to educate and remediate first level offenses and then “progresses” to a more intensive response for multiple or serious offenses. You can find our 2019-2020 Student Code of Conduct at the following link:

2019-2020 Student Code of Conduct and Discipline Handbook

Possessing, displaying, or distributing profane, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, or ethnically offensive materials is a violation of the Fulton County Schools Student Code of Conduct. Consequences typically range from local school consequences up to 10 days of Out of School Suspension. Some violations could result in a referral to a disciplinary hearing for long-term suspension or expulsion from Fulton County Schools and/or reported to the school or local police if the possession or sharing of these materials constitutes an illegal act.

If you have not done so already, we encourage you to discuss both the safety concerns and disciplinary consequences for possessing and/or distributing inappropriate material with your student. As always, we appreciate your support and partnership as we all work together to ensure that we put Students First, Safety First.

Fulton County Schools