The reason this picture was such a big deal was it had, of course, spread around the school, and this young lady was considered even lower in the “High School Popularity Food Chain” than she had been just by being a freshman.
Although certain students had absolutely no idea who this girl was as a person or a teammate, they continued to ramble on as if they’d known all along she would do something like this. As if just by hearing her name they automatically knew her life story and how a scandal like this was expected from her. 
I remember a random girl who said in the hallway, “She thinks we’re going to forget next year, but we won’t. This will stick with her throughout high school.” This “Hallway Gossip Girl” never met the victim. She probably didn’t even know her name.
She treated the situation as she treated every situation: an opportunity to gain popularity. As if trashing this kid would make her appear cooler to her friends.
Knowing the three people involved (the freshman who sent the picture, the boy she sent it to and the boy’s girlfriend), I felt I knew more about this situation than the students who were discussing it, and yet I kept my mouth shut because I knew how embarrassing this situation could become just by saying it out loud.
I cannot tell you how this picture got around the school or how this one text became the talk of the town, but I know well enough that it should not have been sent at all.
Although the freshman made a dreadful and reputation-ruining mistake, she was not the type of person people were making her out to be. What she did was definitely not something I approved of, but I can guarantee the girl was embarrassed enough that the faculty had had to get involved; getting sneered at in the hallway did not help the situation, but only made it worse.
We even can see “sexting scandals” like this in recent news with Anthony Weiner — the ex-congressman — who uploaded pictures of his private parts which were eventually spread all over the Internet.
An article in the Huffington Post suggested these scandals are opportunities to teach children that “once you send a photo, you can never get it back.” People need to know how “easy it is for an inappropriate tweet or Facebook post to come back and haunt you.”
The freshman who made this exact mistake eventually left the school. I’m not sure if she actually finished out the year; soccer season was over by this point, so I didn’t see her much.
The faculty of the school tried to make sure everyone who received the picture had deleted it, but it’s probably floating out there in the universe.
Every text, every Facebook picture, every blog post: you never know where these words or images will end up.
They can each be copied and saved, and when typing or posting these things, people do not usually acknowledge that fact. Many employers use the Internet to research potential employees before hiring them.
If you don’t remember anything, remember to be careful what you say or what you send — it only takes one click for someone to ruin your reputation.
 
Becca Horton is a sophomore majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].