Usually a graduation ceremony includes speeches, gowns and applause. But no one was clapping when a sex video with one of the graduating students appeared on the big screen at a high school in Hellerup.
Around 450 people were present at the morning ceremony at Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium in order to view a film about the graduating class.
As clips of smiling students filled the screen, the atmosphere quickly changed as the film suddenly cut to one of the graduating students having sex with an unidentified woman in what looked like hidden camera footage. The sex clip was apparently loaded onto the computer used for the big screen presentation, in which students were allowed to contribute their own photos and video clips.
Jørgen Rasmussen, the headteacher at Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, said he knows the identity of the male student in the video but will not file police charges against him, adding that real perpetrators in the case are those who secretly recorded and uploaded the video.
"We've agreed not to press charges," Rasmussen told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau. "However, we have encouraged the two young people who appear in the video to proceed with the case. It is really them, and not the school, that was violated."
The woman shown in the video does not attend Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium and may not even be aware of the footage, but she would have a solid case if she took legal action, according to media law expert Oluf Jørgensen.
“Because the footage was shown at the morning ceremony, we’re talking about the disclosure of material that is offensive and that is a clear violation of the criminal law,” Jørgensen told Politiken newspaper. “Revealing sexual activity is a very serious violation and if the woman in the video files a civil suit demanding financial retribution, she’ll most likely win.”
Headteacher Rasmussen told Berlingske that the school knows who edited the video clip into the ceremony and the guilty parties have been punished by the school, but he would not elaborate further.
According to Jeppe Hald, the national project leader for the family planning association Sex og Samfund, that a student chose to insert the sex clip into the graduation ceremony video is a reflection that the lines between private and public have been blurred due to the proliferation of reality television.
“When they see people have sex on TV, it influences the limits of what they want to show of their private and intimate life,” Hald told Politiken.
NOTE: This story was updated at 2:27pm to include new information
