Levar Allen, 17, is being punished for participating in an act that’s common among today’s teenagers. However, his family believes that race has become a more important factor than the actual act.
Allen’s White girlfriend, who is 16, sent him a nude video of herself. Allen decided to send the girl videos of himself nude. It was a consensual act between two teenagers who apparently found each other attractive.
However, the sheriff in Bossier City, Louisiana, somehow believes that Allen was participating in child porn. According to KSLA, Allen was charged with delinquency of a juvenile and possession of child pornography because the girl was 16, a minor.
The facts of the case and the premature decision to charge Allen appear to be driven by race. When asked if race played a part in the decision to charge Allen, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, Lt. Bill Davis, claimed that child porn is against the law and the case has nothing to do with race. But Davis and other officials have been allowed to believe their own lies. Allen was not taking advantage of a young child, he was engaging in a flirtatious act with a fellow student who welcomed the exchange.
Furthermore, it appears to be a generational issue as well. Sexting is a common act for millennials who use cellphones and social media routinely in their relationships. Sometimes thing can go too far, but teenagers in every generation have been curious when it comes to sex.
Allen is an accomplished wrestler at his school, an upstanding student, and never had a criminal record. It’s highly unlikely that he would have been charged with child porn if he was a White male, or if the girl who received the sext message was Black.
But he now faces a felony, jail time, and being branded as a sex offender.
