St. Dominic’s Academy, a Catholic high school in Auburn, has notified parents of a sexting incident that took place at the school late last month.

Some boys at the school of about 275 students were competing to collect the most sexual images of teenage girls in a week, some of them students at St. Dominic’s, according to a report in the Sun Journal in Lewiston. Girls were asked to forward nude pictures of themselves to the boys.

School officials discovered the competition and Auburn police were called in on Oct. 30.

Dave Guthro, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, said Saturday that the incident involved 15 to 20 students who were disciplined by receiving suspensions and community service assignments.

Guthro said the situation was discovered by administrators and was stopped. Parents of the students involved were notified.

“It is not an ongoing problem and the safety of students was never threatened at any time,” said Guthro.

He said a letter explaining what happened and outlining the steps taken by the school to address the situation was sent to parents. The letter invited parents to contact the school if they had further questions.

Phone calls and emails to the school’s principal, board chairman and several other school officials were not returned Saturday. An Auburn police spokesman said no information was available Saturday about the incident.

Mike L’Abbe of Topsham, the father of a student at St. Dominic’s, received the letter from the school. L’Abbe said he is satisfied with how the incident was handled by school officials.

“It is troubling but the administration is certainly working fast to make sure we have the best possible outcome,” said L’Abbe.

He said he knew few details about the incident. He said his child is a senior and not close to the students involved.

 

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