AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Police continue to investigate an apparent “sextortion” scheme targeting students at eight area high schools and middle schools.
The first report of the scheme was reported Jan. 16 to a school resource officer, police said on Monday. Just one day later, news of the investigation was published in the Rangeview High School newspaper, the Rangeview Rider Review.
“I feel like this was a story that really should be told,” said Ione Narajka, one of the Rangeview students who broke the story.
Narajka said the group of student journalists quickly started documenting the situation and taking photos of the posts on social media before they were deleted. Students in six of the sextortion instances said they were directly targeted after a suspect contacted them through Instagram, according to police.
“They were censored images where you could see who the person was, but you couldn’t see the actual illicit part of it,” Narajka said. “So, you could tell it was a nude photo, but you couldn’t see the explicit nature.”
Narajka said the person handling the account offered to show the full images to people if they agreed to send money to the account.
“Selling child porn, if you want to put it in layman's terms.” Narajka said.
The story has since received national attention, and the students said they’re thankful they were able to spread awareness to students and parents throughout the metro Denver area.
“A lot of it was, let’s keep the victims safe, but everyone needs to know about this.” Narajka said. “Like, I know some parents might not hear it from their kids, but they might hear it from us.”
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