After artificial-intelligence-generated nude photos were circulated around a New Jersey high school with superimposed faces of female students, one victim of the situation spoke out to FOX News on Friday.
Francesca Mani told “The Ingraham Angle” that the principal at Westfield High School recently notified her that she was one of multiple victims.
“After that, I just felt, like, betrayed because I never thought it’d be my classmate, and when I came home, I told my mom and I said, ‘We need to do something about this because it’s not OK, and people are making it seem like it is.’”
Mani said she never personally witnessed the explicit images, but that she felt betrayed.
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Mani said she believes she knows who the main culprit in the dissemination of the images is, but did not mention their name on air.
Her mother, however, suggested the school did not act with enough urgency to find the culprit or culprits and did not take the situation as seriously as it could have.
“As per the email that the principal sent out, the images are gone. As per the conversation that I had over the phone with the vice principal, the images are gone, and I should not worry because it was just a Snapchat,” Dorota Mani said, as Snapchat media often seemingly disappear after several seconds.
Dorota Mani said a digital footprint, however, still exists somewhere in the cyber ether.
She is fighting to figure out where the images originated and how to bring them back.
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“Through this whole process, we’ve been so disappointed in the way that Westfield High School has been handling this situation for all the girls,” she said.
Westfield Schools told FOX News Digital that it could not provide specific details on the number of students involved or disciplinary actions taken due to confidentiality.
The district said the incident happened over the summer, but administration was made aware on Oct. 20. The Westfield Police Department and school resource officer were notified and consulted, and counseling was provided to students, they added.
An email to parents was also sent by Principal Mary Asfendis on Oct. 20, which called the incident “very serious.” In the email, Asfendis said she believed the images had been deleted, and suggested parents join with the school to educate their children on responsible technology use.
On “The Ingraham Angle,” Dorota Mani said the school’s posture amounted to laying out how the images did not originate from school media, adding that the overarching issue at-hand is the increase in cyberbullying nationwide.
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The mother added that other girls who have been reportedly victimized also feel traumatized and betrayed, and expressed a general sense that no one is listening to them.
Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Raymond González provided the following statement to FOX News Digital:
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“All school districts are grappling with the challenges and impact of Artificial Intelligence and other technology available to students at any time and anywhere. The Westfield Public School District has safeguards in place to prevent this from happening on our network and school-issued devices. We continue to strengthen our efforts by educating our students and establishing clear guidelines to ensure that these new technologies are used responsibly in our schools and beyond.”
FOX News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
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