At Bedford High School recently, some “boys”—and I use that word deliberately—were taking pictures of their female classmates without their consent and exchanging the images. 

The freshman and sophomore “boys” at Bedford High School had been secretly gathering photos of junior and senior girls, grading the pictures and trading them as playing cards, as if the female’s images were Pokemon cards. 

In a Union Leader article, BHS Principal Bob Jozokos said that the students who  were involved in the situation “‘can expect to have a meeting with their parents here at school,” adding that “‘an  in-school suspension or out-of-school suspension” would be their punishments, depending on the severity of how much they were involved. 

So three days at home for exploiting young women is a supposedly just punishment? The punishment isn’t enough.

On Change.org, there’s a petition to expel the “boys” who participated. This is due to the amount of mental and emotional damage they did by treating the girls’ bodies like property and putting their pictures on cards. 

I agree with those who have signed this petition. Not only did they sexualize and objectify the young woman, they’re getting away with a slap on the wrist. Bedford High School needs to send a message to other students that this kind of misogyny will receive a significant punishment for the damage they are doing, and it has no place in schools…or the world at large.