Prosecutor Wants to Charge 14-Year-Old Girl with Sexual Exploitation for Taking PG-13 Pictures of Herself

When her parents found out she had sexted, they were horrified. When they saw the actual pictures, they were confused.
By Robby Soave | reason.com | October 4, 2016

A 14-year-old Iowa girl, "Nancy Doe," is facing sexual exploitation charges for taking two sexy pictures of a minor and texting them to a boy at school.

The minor in question is Doe, which means the Marion County prosecutor has essentially threatened to brand her a sex offender for taking and sending pictures of her own body.

Making matters significantly worse, the pictures in question can hardly be described as child pornography, Doe's family argues in its lawsuit against Marion County Attorney Ed Bull. In one photo, she was wearing boy shorts and a sports bra. In the other, she had removed the bra but her hair was fully covering her breasts.

Doe's own parents described the pictures as "less 'racy' than photographs they see in fashion magazines and on television every day." They wonder if she could have been prosecuted for taking a picture of herself in her swimsuit—such a picture would have probably been even more revealing than the alleged 'sexts.'

Doe's not waiting to be prosecuted for something that shouldn't even be a crime, and probably isn't in this specific case. She has filed a lawsuit against the county attorney for threatening to violate her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

"It is clearly a violation of the First Amendment for a prosecutor to credibly threaten to bring criminal charges for protected speech and expression," Rita Bettis, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, told The Des Moines Register. "While courts have held that child pornography is not protected under the First Amendment, in this case, there appears to be a real factual question about whether the image itself was child pornography."

The trouble began last March, when two boys at Knoxville High School were caught using the school printers to print inappropriate photos of their classmates, both male and female, which had been obtained via texts and Snapchat. Some of the teens in the photos were nude, though emojis were covering their private parts, according to the lawsuit. Doe's two photos were among them.

Schools doling out post-retirement bonuses: Same outrageous tune, new verse

By Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune | September 27, 2016

In 2005, Illinois lawmakers tried to rein in school districts that dole out lavish end-of-career pay raises to teachers and administrators in order to jack up their pensions. Springfield set limits and imposed penalties for districts that exceeded them. The aim: to cut pension costs and boost Illinois' dangerously underfunded teachers pension system.

But some school districts still resist. They rely on arcane (read: devious) ways to circumvent the intent of the law and reward outgoing educators with huge bonuses instead.

On Monday, the Tribune's Diane Rado exposed the latest outrage: Some Chicago-area school districts shell out tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to teachers and administrators who are already retired. Those payouts can come on top of multiple late-career salary hikes handed to educators to boost their pensions as they exit.

For those keeping count at home: That's two ways that districts are spending someone else's money to weave lavish post-retirement golden parachutes for educators.

Why haven't you heard about this before? Because, as Rado writes, these bonuses are "tucked into teacher and administrator contracts, and school officials acknowledge that payouts to individual educators are not always transparent or publicized."

Not always transparent or publicized? Try: Cleverly obscured. The payouts are calculated in various ways — a flat amount, a set figure multiplied by an educator's years of service or a percentage of an educator's annual salary — all of which makes it harder for taxpayers to follow the money out the door and into the retired educator's pocket.

The payouts amount to big money:

•  In the Vernon Hills-based Community High School District 128, one principal reaped 30 percent of her $200,000-plus base salary, a post-retirement bonus of $64,228.

•  Deerfield Public School District 109 spent nearly $1 million in end-of-career "severance" payments in the last two years alone. One longtime teacher took home about $67,000 so far, and a final payment in 2017 will propel her total post-retirement bonus to about $78,000.

•  Libertyville School District 70 has dished out almost $600,000 in bonuses for 38 educators over the last five school years.

Walmart Workers Refuse to Make Cop’s Retirement Cake

By Todd Starnes | officer.com | September 26, 2016

Three Walmart workers in McDonough, Georgia refused to decorate a “thin blue line” cake for a police officer’s retirement party because they said it was racist.

A number of my Georgia readers alerted me to the story and on Saturday night I spoke directly with the police officer’s daughter. She asked that I not divulge her name and I’ve agreed to honor her request.

“I was so shocked,” she told me. “I didn’t know what to do or say or anything. I was trying not to lose my temper or make a scene.”

“The baker told me the blue line cake was racist”

— Police Officer's Daughter

For the record, Walmart has confessed that most of her allegations are true. I’ll have more on that a bit later in this column.

The police officer’s daughter went to the Walmart on Willow Drive on Sept. 22 to order a flag for her father’s retirement party. He was leaving the force after 25-years on the job.

She showed the bakers a photograph of the police officer’s flag - the black and white version of Old Glory with a blue line.

“One of the bakers told me the design could be perceived as racist and nobody feels comfortable decorating the cake,” the police officer’s daughter told me.