07/14/2009
Sextortion at Eisenhower High
Michael Joseph Gross publishes a lengthy look at the sexual habits of teens online via the case of Tony Stancl, a former high school senior at Eisenhower High School in Wisconsin. Last year, Stancl blackmailed dozens of fellow male students into the school into sending him naked photos of themselves and performing sex acts after posing as a female classmate and then threatening to expose them:
"Wired magazine posted the criminal complaint against Stancl on its Web site, and kids downloaded the document, which identified the victims by their initials and dates of birth. Then the kids went to Facebook and searched the Eisenhower network by plugging in birth dates. Within minutes they had a full list of the names of the alleged victims, which made the story even more incredible. These were not wayward, damaged boys. They were athletes. Leaders. Popular, college-bound, bright-futured kids. Boys so unimpeachably straight that there was no way you could imagine them doing the things they were supposed to have done with Tony Stancl. Everyone wondered, How could these boys let this happen?"
Sextortion at Eisenhower High [gq]
Posted 10:58 AM EST by Andy Towle in News, Wisconsin | Permalink
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"Boys so unimpeachably straight ..."
The fantasy world people live in is amazing.... straight guys jerk off together all the time in high school secretly.\
Always have.
Always will.
They were having safe sex.
Such is life.
Then they go onto marry.
Posted by: Willie | Jul 14, 2009 11:56:50 AM
Well you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh...
Posted by: Nonplussed | Jul 14, 2009 11:57:05 AM
Vengence is mine...sayeth the geek.
I don't think they're going to make a movie from this story. Even the one openly gay guy didn't come across as such a nice person.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jul 14, 2009 12:03:24 PM
Derrick, that's what movie magic is all about! They have less onus to keep the characters consistant with the truth than reporters do. I for one welcome our new sextortionist overlords.
Posted by: NoSleep4Samm | Jul 14, 2009 12:24:41 PM
This is a terrible event, and the kid should go to jail...
but what really bugs me is the tone of this article....
That "athletes. Leaders. Popular, college-bound, bright-futured kids." are "unimpeachably straight".
And that the opposite of these straightmos must be "wayward, damaged boys"
Posted by: samwise | Jul 14, 2009 12:26:06 PM
This story never made a bit of sense to me. It seems like a jock who got tricked into sending a nude photo would just kick the shit out of the geek, not agree to mess around with him. Why would the jock feel ashamed or be a target of blackmail? He thought it was a chick. And the complaint made it absurdly easy to identify the kids.
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 14, 2009 12:31:14 PM
That article is oddly fascinating. I could see it being a Heathers-esque dark comedy for the Facebook generation.
Posted by: crispy | Jul 14, 2009 12:35:08 PM
I love this story. It's the chubby, gay geek outsmarting the hot, moronic athletes and tricking them into hot sex action before the lightbulb clicks on in their blowhard heads. Surely, as teenagers we all dreamed of doing that. It's like br'er rabbit.
Posted by: Donovan | Jul 14, 2009 12:36:51 PM
There's so much to this bizare little tale I don't know where to start.On the one hand we have an alienated gay kid (who'se even rejected and riducled by more socially astute gay kids) who deserves a little pity and understanding, as the majority of us have been there. On the other, we have this more than a little sociopathic scheme that is ultimitley a massive power trip. So much of this story sounds like it could be erotic fiction and definitley can be filed under the strange but true category.
One thing that bothers me though, is the sentencing. Sure, blackmail, extortion, the whole minor aspect, lots to prosecute. But, the skeptic in me is wondering if this were some popular straight guy "sexting" a bunch of high school girls similarly, would he be facing charges as steep? Would we even be talking about this? I remember when this story first broke, I thought, this kid is going to have an example made of him, and at a whopping 293 years in prison...it would seem so.
Beyond that, the idea that most anyone, especially at the age of 17 is "impechably straight" is laughable.
Posted by: g_whiz | Jul 14, 2009 12:57:47 PM
g_whiz, I noticed that too... even the out gay kid helped ridicule the closeted basket case. Progress?
Posted by: crispy | Jul 14, 2009 1:14:02 PM
I don't find the closeted basket gay a remotely sympathetic character here. Crazy aside, he sounds like a pain in the ass. "To$y"? Give me a break.
What's more interesting is that at least seven guys agreed to this (and, at least when anal sex was involved, were bottoms), but none of them is claiming to suffer any long-term damage. There's no way he'll get 239 years, though it was really charming to read from a "respected columnist" about the prison rape he can expect.
Who knows, maybe a wonderful romance could have bloomed if the "out" gay kid (who won't give his name) hadn't given a fake address, and all this mess could have been avoided. Kidding.
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 14, 2009 1:59:40 PM
Oh, and G_whiz, I doubt as many girls would have fallen for this scheme. A teenage boy will show his dick to anyone willing to look if he thinks it will get him laid. Online, most teenage girls would only show themselves off to their boyfriends. There's definitely some gay panic to this story, but it would still be a scandal if a teenage boy tricked or blackmailed a bunch of underage girls into sleeping with him.
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 14, 2009 2:05:18 PM
Willie, how do you know they were having safe sex? The article never touches on that, and this involved far more than circle jerks.
Posted by: Geronimo | Jul 14, 2009 2:07:55 PM
When I was in high school it was a big deal to catch a naked glimpse in a locker room or score a nudie mag.
My how times have changed!
These post-Web2.0 kids...they have the most cavalier attitudes about sex, nudity, etc. It's only the adults of Gen X and Boomers who are going to find this story perplexing.
Posted by: Ben | Jul 14, 2009 2:12:48 PM
I'm not willing to celebrate Tony's crimes just because he was gay and a geek. That doesn't make his actions justified. What he's accused of doing is pretty awful, and has the added bonus of giving lots of people another reason to confuse gays with sex predators. He didn't really do any of us a favor.
Posted by: raf | Jul 14, 2009 2:16:34 PM
In High School I messed around with the captain of the football team and a few other school "leaders" who were all straight. It's called being a horny teenager. They are all married with kids now, point being, don't be so shocked to find the "unimpeachably straight" guys sucking dick, it happens and it's not because a person is gay or straight, it's because we are sexual beings. It's fun and it feels good.
Posted by: John | Jul 14, 2009 2:52:46 PM
The majority of the comments here are really vile. What "Tony" did was all OK in the pursuit of "hot sex" and secretly the victims "loved it." Just goes to show you that gay men can be as sexually depraved and disgusting as their straight male counterparts.
Oh - and straight guys don't "jerk each other off all the time in high school." That's a gay male fantasy that bears as much resemblance to reality as cheerleaders cat fighting and then collapsing into passionate lesbian sex. Idiot.
Posted by: Shane | Jul 14, 2009 4:10:50 PM
I think maybe you're right Paul R. I feel like this entire series of events is increasingly bizarre, and yes, he's morally and ethically in the wrong here without question. I still find some aspect of this story troubling beyond it all as it pertains to the implications. The kid in question is possibly a sociopath and obviously deeply fucked up, but this didn't happen in a vaccum nor overnight. I'm wondering if someone could have diagnosed some of his problems before this oddity came to pass, is all.
As for the comment on "gay men being as sexually depraved as their male counterparts"...I don't see how this should be a revalation?
Posted by: g_whiz | Jul 14, 2009 4:41:46 PM
Unfortuantely, I think most people will read this story for the events on the surface instead of reading between the lines at the real causes of all the trouble.
First of all, there is the ostracizing that happens in high school. If teens were not so keen to ostracize the perp because he was geeky and then to refuse to even speak to him because they decided he was gay, he could have attended school without developing this intense desire for revenge. We've seen this teen anger explode at Columbine and many other tragedies.
And secondly, there is American society's gross overreaction to issues like these guys' initial mistake. If the guys who had sent their own pic to the fictional girl had not feared for their lives if news of the pics ever got out, they could have handled the situation without ending up feeling trapped into a spiralling nightmare.
If only they could have felt confident that they could tell the truth without being treated as an outcast by their social circles and as a criminal by the adults, then they could have rendered Tony powerless to blackmail anyone and, at the same time, he would likely have been stopped either by being caught or by no longer eliciting the reactions that helped move his game along to worsening levels.
Posted by: GregV | Jul 14, 2009 6:22:50 PM
Shane, there is exactly one comment referring to "hot sex" and one comment saying that straight guys jerk off together (not jerk each other off). No one says the victims "loved it," and the other 15 or so comments clearly recognize that Tony has some major problems.
Posted by: Geronimo | Jul 14, 2009 7:01:26 PM
In cyberspace everyone can hear you (s)cream...
Posted by: taco flavored kiss | Jul 14, 2009 9:33:47 PM
YES!
Like most of you, I love this story. Can't get enough! Might sound wrong, but this guy is awesome! Renegade, fuck you straight boys, awesome!
Sorry, as a little punk boy--
Stancl is a smart, cunning, criminal. Doted the I's and crossed the T's!
This shit gets even more delicious!
Posted by: C_to_the_S | Jul 14, 2009 10:24:59 PM
this is not funny, amusing, or vindication.
this is pure blackmail. this kid is a budding psychopath and will most likely be considered (rightfully so) a sexually violent predator by the courts.
does he need help? sounds like it. will he respond to it? possibly not.
Posted by: DR | Jul 14, 2009 10:25:18 PM
@C_to_the_S: Smart and cunning? He handed over his laptop to police with meticulous folders showing the guys he'd screwed with? Then readily admitted it, in addition to a bomb threat?
If there were some evidence these guys had abused him and this were a type of payback, then your deranged point might be remotely correct. But it sounds like he was a smarmy little closeted ass. He dotted the I's and crossed the T's on his own arrest warrant. Not really such a smooth operator.
So you and he have fantasies of fucking straight boys. Good for you. How do you think those raped straight boys will feel about gay men in the future? Say, after a few years, a few beers, and a few not-so-repressed memories? I was raped by a guy once, and I'm gay---and I still want to kill the asshole. Rape isn't funny, cool, or clever, no matter how it happens.
Posted by: Geronimo | Jul 14, 2009 11:16:56 PM
Ha, I may get blacklisted for what I think about this case, but Im sorry if people feel that their lack of basic common sense should be a base to argue that they were victimized by this boy. Seriously, if you agree to let some kid suck your dick while taking a picture of it for some imaginary girl who happens to be the only girl at your school not on facebook, then you have something wrong with you. Yes, blackmail is wrong, but is it really wrong for a 17 year old to have 'child pornography' on his computer? Thats like an 18 year old getting put in jail for 'raping' his 17 year old girlfriend.
I agree that what Tony did was wrong, BUT, people who refrain from using basic common sense should not be allowed to blame their stupidity on someone else. People should be reprimanded for what THEY do wrong, not what the people who are affected do wrong. So-called 'victims' should be held accountable for their own actions. Now if these 'children' were younger than high school, I would understand that context a little better, but these were high school guys dealing with their own peers, not some old man creeping up on some middle schoolers.
Anyway, beyond that little point. I think the townspeople are idiots. One secretary saying that certain kids should be getting beat up in school and asking why they had not been beaten up as if thats how you are supposed to maintain social order by beating up the geeks or outcast students? What a boo-whore! Then she says she saw pictures of the boy and said he was definitely not cool? What kinds of people are running this town? Later another bitch talks about how she exposed the story to GQ in hopes that she will help prevent one less person from being 'ass-raped' when no one in the story was even ass-raped - hello Tony was the one taking it up the butt. And like its ok to be vaginally raped, just not ass-raped, because its gay. No bitch, your trailer trash ass wanted some cash - she didnt care about anyone. To top it off, if any of the 200 parents attending the 'cybersafety workshop' actually learned something, we have a problem!!
I just think everyone should be held accountable for their actions. Tony fucked up and what he did was wrong, but some of his 'victims' also fucked up as well. I believe that extortion is wrong, but having 'child pornography' of people you know who are your own age is a stretch - like arresting people in a bar for public drunkenness.
Its not that I 'sympathize' with Tony, its that I dont sympathize with dumb people who want to blame someone else for their poor decisions.
Posted by: Drewboo | Jul 15, 2009 9:58:40 AM