Turlock High senior arrested for ‘smash or pass’ website depicting classmates

The Turlock Police Department arrested an 18-year-old senior at Turlock High School Tuesday afternoon on campus for allegedly creating a “smash or pass” website featuring yearbook photos of his classmates to be ranked by attractiveness. The FBI has since shut down the website, which had the URL diddyparty.live.

Rikio Sauter was arrested Sept. 16 on two felony charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and unauthorized use of a computer, and a misdemeanor charge of harassing minors, according to Turlock Police Department spokesperson Dominique Sanchez.

Though Sauter has not yet faced academic consequences such as an expulsion or suspension, the district “is currently investigating this incident to determine appropriate accountability measures,” according to Turlock Unified School District spokesperson Marie Russell.

Sauter accessed yearbook photos of his classmates via a third-party website, Lifetouch, a family and school photography company that Turlock High School works with for yearbook photos and senior portraits. According to Russell, the district is cooperating with the photo company and law enforcement to continue investigating the incident.

“Since Monday we have been communicating with our THS families and have also sent a message to our TUSD community. TUSD is cooperating with both Lifetouch and Turlock Police Department to continue to investigate this matter to understand how these files may have been accessed,” Russell continued.

Sanchez said the school alerted the Police Department’s school resource officer about the website on Sept. 12. The school also reported the website to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which resulted in the FBI shutting down the site, according to the Turlock Journal.

Russell said the district received at least 10 complaints from members of the school’s community regarding the website, including via the district’s Stopit app.

“We took steps to make sure each concern was addressed to the best of our current ability,” Russell said in a statement to the Bee.

The Turlock Journal reported that many Turlock High students became aware of the website on Sept. 12, according to various social media accounts. The Journal also reported that a private Instagram account connected to the website remains accessible.

According to Sanchez, it is unknown how long the website was up before the FBI shut it down.

According to the Journal, when the website was still up, it featured a leaderboard of the students considered most attractive and least attractive based on ratings by people using the website. By Sept. 14, part of the website was taken down and redirected to a message that said, “Everyone is beautiful. No cyberbullying!”

Russell said the district does not know of other students’ involvement in accessing photos via Lifetouch and creating the “smash or pass” website. As of Friday morning, the Turlock Police Department had not arrested any other students in connection with the website, either.