Published: April 03, 2009 10:49 pm      

Ansted mom upset over alleged restroom photo

Patsy Legg says she was shocked and angry when her daughter came home from school Thursday and told her that two girls took her picture with a camera phone from underneath the stall in the girls restroom at the school.

Legg’s daughter, a fifth-grade student at Ansted Middle School, told her that two eighth-grade girls were in a bathroom stall next to her when she noticed one of them had a camera phone held underneath the stall wall and snapped a picture.

“I asked her did she tell anyone about it and she said she told a school secretary,” Legg said.

Legg said Friday she went to the school and made a complaint to Mark Skaggs, the school’s principal.

Skaggs confirmed Legg did make a complaint, but would not comment further.

“We are currently investigating this complaint,” he said.

Legg said she felt as if the school was trying to downplay the incident.

“The principal told me it would be hard to prove,” she said.

Legg told Skaggs she was concerned that a digital image of her daughter using the bathroom might make its way to the Internet.

“He told me that my daughter probably couldn’t be identified,” Legg said. “I asked him how could he be sure if he didn’t see the image.”

Legg also pointed out to Skaggs that the Fayette County Board of Education had reportedly banned students from bringing camera cellular telephones to school.

“He said it was the first he’d heard of it,” she said.

In 2004, Fayette County board members unanimously approved a proposal that added camera cell phones to the county’s policy on electronic devices, which was created in 1983, according to then-Superintendent Helen Whitehair.

Cell phones, pagers, tape recorders and other electronic devices are banned under the county’s policy, but a principal can grant an exemption on an emergency basis.

“I don’t think these girls that did this had an exemption granted to them on an emergency basis,” Legg said.

The ban does not apply to staff or faculty, according to the policy.

The proliferation of Internet sites filled with pictures shot surreptitiously in public bathrooms, locker rooms and other places has prompted some schools in other states to ban the phones.

In West Virginia, it is against the law to videotape or photograph someone who is nude or seminude and publish the images without the consent of the person.

Legg said Friday the principal called her back to inform her that the two girls were found to have violated the school’s code of conduct rules.

“He said they also confiscated the alleged cell phone, but wouldn’t tell me what was on it or what disciplinary action would be taken against the two girls that allegedly took the picture,” Legg said. “I didn’t want to file a juvenile criminal complaint, but I wanted something done so this type of thing doesn’t happen again to another child.”

Again, Skaggs said he could not comment.

Legg said the school must enforce the ban on camera phones, cell phones, pagers, tape recorders and other electronic devices.

“That would be difficult to do if the school’s principal doesn’t even know that there is a ban,” she said.

Current Superintendent Chris Perkins could not be reached for comment and a message left for associate superintendent Serena Starcher was not immediately returned.

— E-mail: fpace@register-herald.com