Teen Charged After Flashing Genitals in Yearbook Prank

A 19-year-old high school football player in Mesa, Ariz., has been hit with 69 counts of misdemeanor indecent exposure after school officials discovered he had flashed his genitals in a yearbook photo, CBS News reports. Hunter Osborn also has a felony charge of furnishing harmful items to minors after he posed for Red Mountain High's varsity football team photo with his genitals exposed as he stood grinning in the second row of players; there's just enough space between two players in the front row to allow his offending parts to be seen. KPHO notes that about 3,400 students received a copy of the yearbook, per Mesa police (though a KNXV reporter tweeted only 250 students nabbed a copy before the school caught on); court docs indicate the team photo was also distributed at football games. Cops say Osborn purposely had his penis sticking out over the top of his waistband during the photo, which was taken with 69 students between the ages of 15 and 19 present (hence the 69 misdemeanor counts), as well as 10 faculty members.

Osborn, who was 18 when the photo was taken, says he was dared to do it and that he now is "disgusted" with himself. Although the school issued a harsh statement saying it was "dismayed," some—including a neighbor who describes Osborn as an otherwise smart, considerate person who holds down a steady job and goes to church—are saying a criminal probe is taking it too far. "It's something that's going to be on his record for the rest of his life," a sophomore at his school tells KPHO. And a student who put up a Change.org petition to "free Hunter Osborn" notes: "He didn't put the picture in the yearbook, he didn't create the page, he wasn't the editor that approved it, or the teacher responsible for publishing it and distributing it to students." The school has recalled the yearbooks to make "a minor but critical edit for the inappropriate content," and Osborn was released on his own recognizance with an electronic monitor after being jailed Saturday. (A student was suspended for quoting from the periodic table in her yearbook.)