Pennsylvania police have filed charges against a high school student who allegedly had hundreds of sexual images of herself on her school-issued laptop. The girl is also accused of possessing more than a dozen videos of juveniles engaged in sexual acts, police said.
New Holland Police charged the 16-year-old Garden Spot High School student on Monday with two counts of possessing obscene and other sexual materials. The girl, a resident of Ephrata, is not being identified because of her age.
Authorities said the investigation began in January, when a tipster informed school administrators that the girl’s laptop contained questionable material.
"The school administrator looked at the computer briefly, saw the images and contacted police," Lt. Jonathan Heisse of the New Holland police told The Huffington Post.
Upon examining the computer's content, authorities allegedly discovered 354 images of the girl and others "engaging in prohibited sexual acts or in the simulation of such acts," the police report stated.
"There are some images of other teenage to slightly older adults that she had corresponded with or somehow got an image of. [But] the majority of the images are of her in various stages of undress, as well as performing some self-sex acts," Heisse said.
Authorities also allegedly discovered 13 videos of juveniles engaged in similar sexual acts.
On Tuesday, Robert Hollister, superintendent of the Eastern Lancaster County School District, issued a statement about the incident, noting that school administrators are "extremely disturbed" by the student's alleged illegal activities.
The superintendent added that none of the images on the girl's computer had been downloaded at school. "At no time did the student download illegal images during school time, on school property, or through the school system," Hollister said.
Read the school's statement.
The girl has been charged as a juvenile, according to Heisse. Had she been charged as an adult, he said, she would likely have faced dozens of counts of possessing child pornography. Because of her age, she faces different penalties than an adult would in a similar situation and will likely not be required to register as a sex offender.
The charges filed against the girl are "more geared toward getting her counseling and help," Heisse said.
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