LINCOLN, Neb. – Two Lincoln teenagers have been ticketed for having sex in a high school hallway during the lunch hour while at least a dozen students watched, according to Lincoln police. School officials said the incident happened over the lunch hour Wednesday at Lincoln Southeast. A female 17-year-old and a male 19-year-old apparently snuck past a gate to get into a restricted hallway near the Prasch Activity Center. Lincoln police said at least a dozen students watched through the gate.
A school administrator found the couple and called a school resource officer.
“I don’t want the message to families (to be that) this is happening indiscriminately all over the halls,” said Becky Wild, with Lincoln Public Schools. Wild said she remembers only one other incident like this in the last 10 years. She said LPS takes it very seriously, and administrators are asking themselves some tough questions.
“Are there some areas in our schools that are not as visible to the adults that supervise? We need to figure out how we cover those. Do we need to be talking with students about appropriate behavior?” Wild said.
Word of the incident doesn’t sit well with some students.
“It’s inappropriate,” said one student. “It is. First of all, they don’t need to be doing that in front of other people.”
Students told KETV NewsWatch 7 that they believe sex in the hallways is rare, but sexual activity in schools happens more than adults think.
“If a kid thinks they can do that and it’s going to make them popular, that’s the level people go to nowadays,” said student Danielle Thompson.
“I honestly think it could happen, and it probably does happen at their schools. People just don’t know about it,” said student Tomika Hopkins-Sanders.
LPS said students involved in sexual activity at school could face disciplinary action, counseling, suspension or even expulsion.
School officials will look at changes that can be made to prevent this kind of incident, but admitted that it’s tough to keep an eye on every student at every moment of the day.