Child Porn Found in School Yearbook
Detectives investigate a picture appearing to depict a sexual act.
June 17, 2011— -- Yearbooks are supposed to house happy high school memories, not child pornography. But that's what officials believe they found amid the annual photos of Big Bear High School students.
"It appeared the male's hand was under the woman's clothing," San Bernardino County Sheriff spokesperson Cindy Bachman told ABCNews.com.
On page 85, a photo of a school dance at the school in Big Bear Lake, Calif., shows a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy who appear to be engaged in a sex act that may have involved penetration.
The school began recalling the yearbooks Tuesday, cutting out the picture and inserting a replacement page. The school also offered to reimburse students if they choose to return the yearbook.
Bear Valley Unified School District issued a statement saying: "It was discovered that a background of one of the pictures contained material that was inappropriate. School and district administration are conducting an investigation into the matter and will take appropriate action based on their finding."
"Somebody must have really been looking 'cause I didn't even notice it until I got a text saying, 'Hey check out what is going on, on page 85,'" senior Donny Souza told ABC station KABC. "They called us in at first and they are like, 'Do you have your yearbook.' No, I didn't have my yearbook that day. 'OK, well ,bring it tomorrow cause you could be charged with a felony.'"
His father, Donald Souza, said he was disturbed by the way the high school kids were addressed. "I am very angry. I know a lot of the kids that were threatened. I coach football up here, and a lot of them were very upset with the threats."
Child pornography is "the visual depiction of a person under the age of 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct" according to federal law.
Bachman said the students in the photo probably didn't know they had been photographed.
"It wasn't noticed until much later that the photograph was inappropriate -- it had already been printed in the book. We don't believe there was any intent to offend anyone … I think it was completely overlooked," she said.
It's the latest in a series of yearbook scandals that have embarrassed educators, parents and students.
This month at Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake, Va., a student attributed the quote "The more, the merrier" to Hitler in the school's yearbook. A similar incident happened last year at Easton Area High School in Pennsylvania when another quotation attributed to Hitler was overlooked. The quote read "And in the last analysis, success is what mattered," and was followed by Hitler's name.
And last month an article in the River City High School yearbook attacked the school's cheerleaders, describing the West Sacramento, Calif., squad as showing "more leg than Daisy Duke" and showing "blatant disregard" for the school dress code.
"I was really mad. I was shaking," cheerleader Breannah Gully told ABC affiliate KXTV. " I started reading, and everyone had to tell me to calm down, and I was just angry at the words, and I called my mom and I was crying."
And at Wenatchee High School in Washington state, officials removed a hurtful photo caption that identified two freshman girls by their weight -- not their names.
As for Big Bear High School, at this point most of the students have returned the yearbook for editing. The interim superintendent of the Bear Valley School District was not available for immediate comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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