Hough High School Students Report Sextortion Over Nude Selfies

CHARLOTTE, NC — “It is a lesson, and it’s a hard lesson”, said Hough High School parent Laura Worgan.

Laura Worgan says she feels for the 15 girls who, according to a search warrant, took nude selfies when they were younger and then were threatened to be exposed.

“I think that girls don’t understand what they’re doing, when they’re just sending it to their boyfriend, even if just undies on, they don’t understand that goes to their friend and then somewhere else,” said Worgan.

According to the search warrant, a former Hough student, now a student at University of Pittsburgh, reported the sextortion in July. The warrant says Charlotte Mecklenburg School Police tracked two Instagram accounts–“the_ lift_ guy” and “a_dannyboy”–and found 15 students who had the same story.

Worgan’s son Matthew, a sophomore at Hough, says social media has made it too easy to disrespect women and expose teenagers.

“It’s just like bullying. If you see someone get bullied, you should be in there to stop it. You should be the one to stop something from happening in the future” said Matthew.

According to police, several of the girls sent more photos, scared of being exposed or having to tell their parents. Police have not said if this is connected to a similar incident in December in which seventy-five nude photos of Hough High School girls were uploaded to DropBox.

Worgan says this is a lesson to talk to your kids.

“It doesn’t go away. It can’t be wiped out. It’s not eliminated,” said Worgan.

CMS says this is an ongoing investigation. The search warrants are to track down the people behind the Instagram accounts who, according to the warrants, have committed several degrees of sexual extortion.