Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve heard about, read about and made jokes about the Pyle sexting scandal. Everyone has speculations about who was involved and what the punishments will be.

We’ve judged both the boys and girls left and right and asked why the sexting scandal even happened in the first place. And, given that every media outlet said the girls took the pictures willingly, members of the community shouldn’t treat them as the victims. According to Pyle students, the girls are either treated the same way they were before the scandal or given “special treatment,” when people are extra sensitive around them.

Sorry, girls. If you were at Whitman, it would be hard to walk the halls without getting judgmental looks or taunting comments. Our feelings won’t change next year.

But until then, one should be sad that this group of girls felt the need to sexualize themselves in order to be accepted by the male middle school population and accept who they are.

When some of the “sexters” are proud of their actions, what does that reflect about our generation? There was a group on Facebook “At Pyle we don’t text. We sext.” Enough said.

However, this sexting problem is not unique at Pyle. Many males in middle school are very easy to understand. They appreciate dirty jokes. Good, bad and in-between.

It baffles me that no one realized how many boys would see the images. Sext your boyfriend? All males in the grade will see it.

Yes, sexting has been a problem, to a lesser degree, for a number of years, but the Pyle scandal makes the issues hit home.

And sexting is just the beginning. With an overwhelming amount of information available, everyone knows everything about everyone. Whether it’s Facebook stalking, e-mailing, text messaging, tweeting, Skype-ing or calling each other, the methods of communication and privacy violations are endless.

Google my name and you find out where I worked two summers ago, that I used to be on Debate and I write for the Black & White. Facebook friend me and you can see the freshmen me. Yikes.

There will always be a group of girls that makes it their mission to be accepted by the boys deemed “popular” or “hot” in order to feel better about themselves. Sexting just pushes this stigma to new extremes.

But, unfortunately for the Pyle girls, this will haunt them for the rest of their life, whether or not they are punished. If the pictures end up on the Internet, the girls will have a difficult time hiding them if a potential employer simply Google searches them.

The boys who took and viewed the pictures are as guilty as the girls who posed for them. It’s impossible to forget about an action of this magnitude. And, even if anyone forgets, there are thousands of people in the community who would be willing to remind them.