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Exeter Township Junior High

Grades 7-8 | 610-779-3320

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Exeter Township Junior High

151 East 39th Street | Reading, PA 19606
(610) 779-3320

Click Here For A Searchable Directory
  • Office

    x3004 Alex Brown, Principal
    x3003 Melissa Taylor, Assistant Principal
    x3001 Susan Purr, Attendance Secretary
    x3002 Patti Suruskie, Secretary

  • Counseling & Guidance

    x3015 Autumn Rheaume, Counselor A-L
    x3014 Kimberly Wickstrom, Counselor M-Z
    x3012 Shannon Buser, Secretary

  • Nurse

    x3016 Kathy Blume

  • Psychologist

    x3006 Chad Rutherford

  • Technology Support

    x3209 Carole McGarry

Note: Faculty phone numbers go to voice mail during school hours

  • Art

    x3214 Ryan Breton
    x3108 Kimberly Lopez

  • Computer Applications

    x3116 Kevin Adams

  • English & Reading

    x3103 Sophie Cannon
    x3104 Alexandria Embert
    x3211 Megan Heller
    x3105 Cheryl Larson
    x3106 Alison Patton
    x3219 Nina Reynolds
    x3117 Brindusa Said
    x3102 Stephanie Walters

  • Fitness & Wellness

    x3126 Anna McNutt
    x3127 Ryan Thomas

  • Librarian

    x3008 Kate Sowers

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    x3306 Kelvin Altemose
    x3303 Laura DeLong
    x3301 Scott Haag
    x3305 Sara Prout
    x3302 Shawn Seidel
    x3304 Kathy Topper

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    x3122 Micah Albrycht
    x3123 Melissa Crotty
    x3221 Kyle Luckenbill

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    x3208 Meredith Heffner
    x3207 Gretchen Hess
    x3205 Brenda Kobie
    x3203 Tracy Powell
    x3206 Darryl Schucker

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    x3202 Brad Galuska
    x3218 Cynthia Jurasinski-Boyer
    x3201 Janine Lucas
    x3227 Mike Noecker
    x3226 Mackenzie Ricketts

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    x3215 Ryan Contento, Learning Support
    x3210 Abigail Elsavage, Learning Support
    x3114, Justin Blatt, Gifted
    x3216 Amy Lubenow, Emotional Support
    x3113 Alyssa Raab, Life Skills
    x3101 Michelle Raccuglia, Learning Support
    x3215 Alaina Tunnell, Learning Support
    x3220 Sara Werner, Learning Support

  • Technology Education

    x3206 Darryl Schucker
    x3111 Zachary Schools
    x3224 Jason Zalno

  • Therapist

    x3217 Kristin Swartley, Speech Therapist

  • World Languages

    x3112 Cory DiGuardi, German
    x3212 Nichole Mandel, Spanish,
    x3219 Nina Reynolds, French

Home » Exeter Schools & Police to Hold Parent Presentation

Tuesday, December 12th at 6PM in the LGI in Exeter Township Senior High School
PRESENTED BY:
Mrs. Alycia Lenart, Exeter Township School District K-12 Student Support Coordinator
Sergeant Detective Rocco DeCamillo, Exeter Township Police Department

Please RSVP in ParentSquare

“Make no mistake, this is an eye-opening, worldwide problem affecting our students here in Exeter,” said Sergeant Detective Rocco DeCamillo to the faculty of the Exeter Township School District during a professional development session held at the Senior High last Tuesday. “To make things worse, we know there are a lot of cases here that are not being reported because it takes a lot of courage to go to a parent, a friend or to the police. This is why I think it’s important for you to be aware of this issue in case you have a student who considers you a role model and decides to confide in you.”

The issue is called sexting, and it can often lead to an even more serious issue called sextortion. “One can lead to the other one, but they are two very different things,” said DeCamillo, who was joined during the presentation by his colleague, Exeter Township Police Detective Anthony Pendell.

In short, DeCamillo explained that sexting is sending sexually-explicit messages, images or videos to another person. Sextortion, however, is a form of cyber blackmail where a perpetrator often demands money to refrain from publicly releasing sexually-explicit messages, images or videos of the victim. These issues, said DeCamillo, are ones that affect adults–as well as minors, too. “You might think of this as a high school problem, but we’re seeing sexting more frequently at the junior high level,” he said. “But what’s even scarier is that we’re starting to see it more frequently in preteens, too, which is scary. The victims–and their offenders–are becoming younger.”

To complicate matters, minors are very savvy with finding ways to hide explicit content and conversations from their parents–and perpetrators are just as savvy at finding their victims. Rather than using traditional texting methods, DeCamillo said that minors and offenders alike use social media, texting or gaming platforms to send or receive content, such as WhatsApp, XBox, Instagram, Playstation, Roblox and Snapchat. On these platforms, adults often pose as minors, cultivating trust and a following by requesting mutual friends. Once a relationship and trust has been established, DeCamillo said that perpetrators will often start by requesting selfies of the minor victim. “Younger kids–those who are 11 or 12–almost can’t help but send these selfies of themselves out naked. They think they’re talking to a 15 year old, but it’s really a 43 year old who is harvesting child pornography.”

Currently, the most frequently used platform is Snapchat. “Snap is the devil,” DeCamillo said as he discussed the app’s encrypted feature called “My Eyes Only,” which is a hidden vault that erases all content as soon as a user asks for a password reset. This, he said, even prevents law enforcement from finding and recovering those photos once a report’s been filed, giving kids a false sense of security about hiding–or sending–naked selfies on the platform. “Kids often don’t think of the ramifications of when they hit that send button there’s a whole lot of things that can come out of it,” he said.

Minors who send sexually-explicit photographs lack the understanding that this is a crime under PA law; however, DeCamillo stressed that the focus of Exeter PD is more on education rather than on the arrests of minors. “This is not a situation where we can arrest our way out of it. It’s not that simple, and arrest isn’t always the answer.” Instead, he said that the department works to educate minors about the pitfalls of sending sexts and how repeated or more serious offenses can get them in serious trouble. Beyond criminal or legal issues, he also warned that sexting can lead to other problems, such as, grooming, destroying a person’s reputation, sextortion or mental health problems. The latter, he said, is unfortunately common, and is something that profoundly worries him and his department. “If the messages wind up in the wrong hands, it can be so mentally damaging to an adolescent teen.” Reflecting on cases outside of Exeter, he said solemnly, “Sometimes, it’s so extreme that children have taken their lives over it,” he said. “Sometimes therapy doesn’t quite work out, their reputation is destroyed and they feel they have no other option other than suicide,” he said with a pause, “It’s heartbreaking.”

Superintendent Dr. Christy Haller and Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Dawn Harris organized the session with Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Detective Pendell to bring a greater awareness to teachers of this issue, which is only growing, according to the figures the detectives presented. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of reports involving sextortion doubled, according to their report, wth 45% of sextortion perpetrators actually carrying out threats, and 25% of victims seeking mental health help following an incident.

Like last year’s edibles presentation, the professional development session proved to be so popular with educators that Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Detective Pendell, along with the district’s K-12 Student Supports Coordinator, Mrs. Alycia Lenart, have decided to offer a similar session to parents and families so that they, too, could learn what police are seeing in the local community, as well as how to talk to their kids about sexting and sextortion. The parent and family session will be held on Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 6PM in Exeter Township Senior High School’s Large Group Instruction (LGI) room.

Exeter Township Junior High School

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Address & Contact Info

  • 151 East 39th Street
    Reading, PA 19606

  • District Phone:
    610-779-3320

  • Fax:
    610-249-0171

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Our Schools

Exeter Township Senior High

Exeter Township Junior High

Reiffton School

Jacksonwald Elementary

Lorane Elementary

Owatin Creek Elementary