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School District Investigating Series Of Lewd Tweets In Elizabeth, NJ

ELIZABETH, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A case of cyber bullying has been taken to a whole new level in New Jersey, with explicit photos purporting to show high school students showing up on Twitter.

As CBS 2's Scott Rapoport reported, there was troubling talk on public high school campuses in Elizabeth.

The school district said that it is investigating a series of lewd, offensive tweets, involving several of its 6 high schools.

"It's disgusting, and I actually get scared. Like if people get mad at me, they might actually do something like that to me," Katherine Quezado said.

It is a development that school officials said is intolerable and beyond disturbing.

"Some of these photos were very sexually explicit. Pictures of body parts," said Elizabeth Public Schools spokesman Donald Goncalves. "The victims appear to be teenage people at the high school level. Although it could even involve kids in the 7th or 8th grade."

School authorities said the tweets and photos have been sent from various accounts. They said that they immediately contacted Twitter and that all of the photos, four in total, have since been taken down.

So far it is unknown who sent the photos, or the identity and age of the people in them.

The controversy has become the subject of a police investigation. All 5,300 high school students have been warned by their principles that those responsible could face criminal charges.

Students have their own ideas as to why this may have happened.

"A lot of people they don't like each other. Everyone has problems over there. They probably do it out of revenge or just being hateful, spiteful," one student said.

High school stuff, they say, has been taken way too far.

In addition to the four photos, the school district said that there were hundreds of tweets that have been considered lewd and obscene.

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