Former Berkeley High School (BHS) student Liam Burgmann (‘21) was charged this week for “revenge porn,” according to a Berkeley Police Department (BPD) press release.
BHS officials reportedly notified the School Resource Officer (SRO) on May 10 that “several female students had their social media accounts hacked to search for and access personal nude photographs.”
17 victims were discovered across the Bay Area, and Burgmann, the hacker, also allegedly posted underage nude photographs to social media sites.
During the investigation, the detectives found that 19-year-old Burgmann was in possession of over 600 images of child pornography, including 130 videos of child pornography, as well as personal information such as names, logins, and passwords of over 100 people, for the purpose of accessing their social media accounts, said the release.
Beyond felony possession of child pornography, Burgmann’s charges from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office include multiple counts of felony accessing computer systems (“hacking”), felony identity theft, as well as multiple counts of distributing private intimate images (revenge porn).
Abby Lamoreaux, a senior and the chief of women’s rights and equity at BHS, is not entirely surprised with the case.
“There’s always been this fear, even if you didn't have anything on you, of being hacked,” said Lamoraux. “We always knew someone was doing this. … But in my mind it was crazy because I always pictured it was some like 45-year-old man living in his mom’s basement. I never thought it could be someone that I've walked the halls of BHS with or that I've interacted with or my friends have interacted with. ”
Lamoreaux also said that she feels this just adds strength to her desire for more anti-harassment and assault work to be done on campus. She especially wants to encourage the administration to send out a statement to the student body about the case as soon as possible.
“We saw the Bissell story this summer and now we’re seeing this and we’re just seeing this pattern of Berkeley High alumnae or Berkeley High staff having this strange record of harassment and harm done to students,” said Lamoreaux. “It just shows this incredibly toxic culture that we’ve created and bred at Berkeley High and needs to be stopped and Liam’s name is just another name onto that list of reasons why we need change.