16-Year-Old Commits Suicide After School Cop Threatens Him with Child Porn Charges

reason.com ^ | May. 24, 2017 9:25 am | Robby Soave

[Forgotten Amendments]

It took school and police officials just a few minutes to extinguish 16-year-old Corey Walgren's promising future. All they did was utter two words: child pornography.

Corey, a junior at Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois, was a perfectly normal, social, good-looking 16-year-old. He was an honor roll student with dreams of attending a Big Ten college. He had typical interests for a teenager boy: hockey, fishing, and, yes, girls.

Corey committed suicide in January, just hours after a school resource officer confronted him about an alleged illegal item on his cell phone—a recording of Corey having sex with a female classmate. The girl had informed a dean at the school that she believed Corey had played the recording for his friends (it's not clear whether he did), which prompted the authorities to summon Corey to the principal's office. They called his mother and told both of them that Corey was being investigated for possession of child pornography.

Corey left the meeting, headed to a nearby parking garage, and jumped.

That's all according to a heartbreaking story in The Chicago Tribune, which obtained police records of the case and spoke with Corey's parents about his death.

"I think they wanted to scare him straight," Corey's mother, Maureen Walgren, told the Tribune. "Instead, they scared him to death."

[TigersEye]

I didn’t have to make it up since you actually said it. LOL

[fatima]

OK Read the article.Girl took it to the Dean of students that he was sending out video of them having sex together.She must have been embarrassed and her parents told her to do it.He was told legally what could happen.If he cared about the girl why would he send out the video.Also we all warn our kids about this.What the school told the young man is standard policy.

[Bishop_Malachi]

You are right. Kids are kids and should not be charged with child porn.

_____________________________________________________

If a 16 year old recorded 2 consenting middle-schoolers, and then began showing the video at school, could he be charged with possessing/distributing child-porn? What if he posted it on Facebook?

[Timpanagos1]

He would be charged as a sex offender.

[Timpanagos1]

“You are right. Kids are kids and should not be charged with child porn.”

Had Corey simply had a picture of himself naked, it would be technically child porn, but not necessarily actionable.

However, the image of the girl on his phone makes it a big problem.

[TigersEye]

No, there does not seem to be a statutory rape charge for either participant here.

Maybe they don't call it statutory rape in Illinois but they both broke the law simply by having sex and both could have been charged for it.

[Faith Presses On]

I remember learning that in psychology years ago and believe it’s true to some extent. On the other hand, it also seems to me that there’s quite a bit more to it.

Like we have to ask, when they study teens’ brains versus adults, are they able to look at the brains of teens from different countries? And can they say that teens’ brains were always like they are now in the past?

We know at all ages, in terms of the brain and body, it’s important how they’re used. In modern societies, teenagers are increasingly lavished with things while they have less responsibility in the past. Children who worked on farms or in factories from young ages had to grow up fast. It was demanded of them by adults and by circumstances.

Then we have to consider, too, things like that teens have so many more truly bad influences on them today. The entertainment industry churns out destructive ideas and images, sowing moral confusion. And whereas children in other eras got steady guidance from spending much if not most of their time with people older than them, today teens look to other teens (as well as entertainers and teachers) for much of their guidance. Those things can’t really help the development of their brains.

[Bishop_Malachi]

I didn’t have to make it up since you actually said it. LOL

_________________________________________________________

It was a rhetorical statement. LOL

[Yaelle]

Yikes, you set up a good scenario for an older teen to be charged with child porn. I agree. If he is filming significantly younger kids, yes. I guess it should be case by case, like the murders where a youth is “tried as an adult.”

[TigersEye]

Had Corey simply had a picture of himself naked, it would be technically child porn, but not necessarily actionable.

It would legally be child porn and it would definitely be actionable.

TigersEye to Timpanagos1

No, I'm not saying that. Illinois law says that.

Child pornography.

In Illinois, a person commits the offense of child pornography by videotaping or photographing anyone he or she should know is under the age of 18 and who is engaged in any sexual act or in any pose involving lewd exhibition of unclothed or transparently clothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or female breast.15 There is no exception for taking pictures of oneself.16 Thus, a 17-year-old who snaps his or her own revealing picture has technically created child pornography, a Class 1 felony with a mandatory fine of between $2,000 and $100,000 and at least four years in prison.17 It would not be a crime if the teen were 18.18

[Bishop_Malachi]

Maybe they don’t call it statutory rape in Illinois but they both broke the law simply by having sex and both could have been charged for it.

____________________________________________________________

More than likely that’s a misdemeanor due to the closeness of their age. Obviously there are a substantial number of kids have sex in their mid teens...always has been. It was not different when I was in high school. But even the biggest moron at my high school would have known that filming it, taking pictures of it, or even recording it, and then bringing it to school for others to “experience” would have been a huge deal.

[TigersEye]

Actually it was two statements...

The reason I got so heated earlier is because I teach at an alternative school;...

The excuse making (and enabling) needs to stop.

I can't see how either one was rhetorical.

[Timpanagos1]

Corey would not have been threatened with charges if he only had pictures of himself.

[Bishop_Malachi]

I can’t see how either one was rhetorical.

__________________________________________________________

I was talking about the statement “Actually...you could.” I meant “you” as in “one”, not “you” as in TigersEye.

[Tammy8]

There are local police departments to handle serious crimes.

Many schools don’t want regular police departments dealing with “their” school and student issues. I think that is why schools want their own security/police. I do think many schools need security on campus but this should have been handled by regular LEO.

At the very least especially for something this serious the parents should have been present for the discussion between the student and school officials and/or school police. In my opinion something serious that truly could result in serious charges should be turned over to the regular LEO for that area.

Teenage boys do some pretty stupid stuff, if he did record and show other students the video it would top the stupid list all the way to criminal and should have been handled by professionals in this type of issue. School officials are not trained to deal with this type of thing and if he hadn’t killed himself they could have possibly done something to mess up a potential legal case if nothing else.

[fatima]

Age of consciousness in the Catholic church is 8 years old.At that age you know wright from wrong.At 8 years old you go to confession.

[higgmeister]

You’re jumping to the conclusion that it was a hand held cell phone.

Not necessarily at all.

The article said it was a recording on a cell phone. No teenager carries a video recorder with them nowadays when they have better video quality on an iPhone 7.

Corey committed suicide in January, just hours after a school resource officer confronted him about an alleged illegal item on his cell phone—a recording of Corey having sex with a female classmate.

[Sivad]

Whether or not someone like this HS Junior is going to
be branded for life is going to depend on the laws
of that state. I’ve spent the last twenty years working
with at-risk teens at a residential Tx facility. At
times we have had kids that had been physically and
sexually abused and, in turn, have become abusers
themselves so the subject of kids and sex issues
is not foreign to me.

[TigersEye]

True. I was responding to the statement that it "would be technically child porn" (whatever that means) and would be "not necessarily actionable" which it would be.

[TigersEye]

Corey would not have been threatened with charges if he only had pictures of himself.

That doesn't make it legal and unactionable as you keep trying to say.