The mom readily admits her 15-year-old daughter made a mistake. She says she should have never sent the picture in the first place. Now the girl is living with so much shame and embarrassment that she tried to take her own life.
Here's the problem. After taking a nude picture of herself and sending it to a boy she was talking to, the picture ended up on a Twitter account. It's not clear who started the account but you can clearly see they are trying to expose HISD students. The site has about a dozen or so nude photos of girls, many of whom can be seen taking the picture themselves.
We interviewed one mother whose daughter's picture was posted. She tells us her daughter began showing signs of depression and this past Tuesday tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. Luckily, she survived.
The mother said, "I don't know how to help her. I mean, I know that it's out there and it's not going to come back. It's not going to go away. But it shouldn't happen where these people get away with doing this."
The 15-year-old is still hospitalized today but is doing OK. Her mother now wants to warn other parents about this site and is asking for help in taking it down.
She said, "What gives them the right, I don't know. I don't know what gives them the right to say this person is this or this person is that or I'm going to expose this person as this."
Rhonda Collins-Byrd leads a youth group for the Houston Police Department. She says one of the topics that always comes up at her meetings is sexting.
She advices, "Before you press send, think about the fact that you can not get this photo back and this can go with you all the way up until your later years."
HISD sent this statement: "HISD officials were notified of social media activity that involved the HISD name earlier this week. We take things of this nature very seriously and our police department is working with several local agencies including HPD and ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) to investigate this issue. Unfortunately, inappropriate social media is very complex and continues to evolve causing the investigation to be large and very detailed. Any information anyone can provide that will help us during our investigation is welcomed. Those with information should call the HISD Tip Line 713-641-7446 or contact Crime Stoppers."
Both HISD and the Houston Police Department are investigating.
Find Karla on Facebook at ABC13KarlaBarguiarena or on Twitter at @KarlaABC13
Take ABC13 with you!
Download our free apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices
