A 17-year-old Bossier, La., boy was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and possession of child pornography after he allegedly sent a sexting video to a 16-year-old girl.
Levar Allen is a three-sport high school athlete who does well in school, according to his mother. He is also black; the girl, who also sent sexting videos to Levar, is white. Levar's mother says she believes that race is the reason her son, who has never been in trouble with the law, is being charged so heavily.
"A little girl sent him a video; she was 16. He sent her a video, and he got charged," Levar's mother, Chasity Washington, told KSLA.
Washington told the news station that she had told her son about the consequences of sexting prior to the incident. She also described the videos in question to the news station. Levar's mother told the station that the girl initiated the encounter by sending a video of herself doing "an obscene act to herself." Washington said her son then "sent one doing the same thing."
"I think because she's white, the parents got upset that she's been doing what she's been doing," Washington told KSLA.
Because the girl is 16, she's considered a minor, and the Bossier Sheriff's Office says it believes that the charges fit the crime and that race played no part in the teen's arrest.
"It doesn't matter what your race, what your religion, what your ethnicity; don't do child pornography! Plain and simple," Bossier Sheriff's Lt. Bill Davis told the news station.
Washington told KSLA that her son is now out on bonds totaling $15,000 and is back at school. KSLA reports that "the single mother of three expects to spend $4,000 on legal expenses to help defend her son."
Read more at KSLA.