Overgoverned: the case of the naked high school students and the overzealous district attorney

We Americans have very unhealthy attitudes about the nude human body. Teenagers have been interested in seeing each other naked since the first cavegirl developed budding breasts. When I was in school, I remember one episode in particular, in the sixth grade, when the teacher left the class and half the girls decided to show us their breasts. I don’t remember why, but I do remember taking a good hard look. The only consequence was that I had a good day that day. Things have changed. Now teens are snapping nudie pics of themselves and sending them via cell phone.

“It used to be that kids would make mistakes, and it was local and singular and everyone knew it was part of growing up,” said Catherine Davis, a PTA co-president in Westport, Connecticut, who had a frank talk with her two sons after several students’ nude self-portraits recently spread through the wealthy New York City bedroom community.

“Now a stupid adolescent mistake can take on major implications and go on their record for the rest of their lives,” she added.

School administrators in Santa Fe, Texas, confiscated dozens of cell phones from students in May after nude photos of two junior high girls began circulating. The girls had sent the photos to their boyfriends, who forwarded them to others, officials said.

This is typical teenage behavior. The only difference is that the technology has changed. Unfortunately, as a society, we are overreacting in typical self-righteous fashion.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.

Are you kidding me? The kid might need counseling. Don’t we already have enough people in jail? A 17-year-old with a naked picture of a 16-year-old is NOT a child pornographer. I propose that the district attorney who filed these charges be put in jail as a public nuisance.

At best the kid should be counseled. Instead, we’re going to destroy his life. This country is in trouble. The number of prurient busybodies is at an all time high. The number of bureaucrats who need to continue arresting citizens to justify continued employment is at an all time high. The number of self-righteous punishment brigade crusaders is at an all time high. Common sense and appropriate consequences for typical teenage behavior is at an all time low as zero tolerance zeal sweeps the land. I weep for those trying to grow up in America in 2008.