Helpful and Hurtful impact of technology in school - WSAW

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW)-- Every year high schools deal with student sexting. To discourage kids from sending inappropriate pictures, law enforcement wants to remind parents to talk to their family about phone use. Most of the time the exchange of messages and pictures happens at home. Though it still shows up at school. Students and school staff are all affected by sexting outbreaks causing a distraction in the classroom.

Womens hand using mobile phone on the bokeh background

Jeff Schremp, the school resource officer at Wausau West High School said today it feels like sending pictures is normal for kids to do.

"They know the risks involved with showing pictures and doing this but they're OK with it so that's scary in itself. So it really comes down to parents talking to their kids about healthy relationships and what they should and shouldn't be doing on their phones and monitoring that,” Schremp said.

Schremp said that sometimes pictures are shared before anything can be done. Because of apps like Snapchat, the evidence is not always accessible to law enforcement. Loss of evidence can make it a 'he said, she said' game for the school. Schremp said while it's not OK to share pictures, all should be reminded that taking underage pictures is illegal as well.

"For a person that takes a picture of themselves and sends it to somebody, and they're under the age of 18, they just produced child pornography. So although they might be a victim at some point saying, now 30 people in the school have this picture, it started with this person starting child pornography,” Schremp said.

Schremp encourages all parents to check out the apps that their child is using to get familiar with what kids are doing on their phones. If a child ever does have a sexting case to deal with Schremp said to reach out to a counselor for help or law enforcement to stop the image from spreading.

The Merrill School District said if used right, technology can be a great learning tool. Their app based curriculum looks to prepare students for jobs that don't exist yet. As well as teach the importance of being appropriate online. They provide iPad for kids year round to encourage learning even after school. Keshia Mashak, director of Merrill Technology Integration hopes that what they are teaching in school sticks with kids after the bell rings.

"We do try to instill digital citizenship in our lessons so that students understand that consequences that come along with improper technology use. And exposing that information to kids in school, then as a result carries over into their daily life and helps them make good decision,” Mashak said.

Mashak said almost every class in their schools an app during class. Teaching kids how to work together and give them a tool to create something new. While technology can be a distraction, Mashak said if you embrace it instead of run away from it, kids will thrive.

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