New Jersey School District Investigates Nude Photos, Offensive Tweets

Officials in a New Jersey school district say they're investigating a sexting scandal involving multiple schools and that they've notified police. 

According to Elizabeth school district officials, multiple Twitter accounts are tweeting out nude photos that they claim to be of students, along with "lewd, insulting and highly offensive messages." 

It's not known if the people behind the Twitter accounts are students, but they have logos of the schools in their profile photos.

Police are investigating whether the girls in the pictures are in fact students and are underage, which would make it child pornography, according to officials. 

"What was being put on there were various forms of harassment, bullying and in many cases, could be construed as criminal behavior," said Elizabeth schools spokesman Donald Goncalvez. 

The 5,300 high school students at all six high schools in the district were warned about the investigation by their respective principals, and given letters saying the perpetrators could face criminal charges.

At one school, the William F. Halsey, Jr. Leadership Academy, principal Jeffrey Roszkowski wrote the district "will not tolerate the sending of harassing, intimidating or bullying tweets or other messages that create a hostile educational environment." 

The district said any student who tweets, retweets or favorites one of the offensive messages, or who follows the offensive tweeters will be disciplined. The district will also "take whatever other legal actions are available to it to unmask these anonymous harassers and impose appropriate discipline," the letter stated. 

Elizabeth police have also been notified and are investigating. The district says it's planning to brief the school board and notify parents. 

Officials said they've also notified Twitter to remove the accounts. Some have been suspended, but NBC 4 New York found at least two still running Thursday evening. 

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