MCMURRAY, Pa. – Peters Township police believe “a number of students” are involved in sharing nude photos of young girls at Peters Township Middle School.

Peters Police Chief Harry Fruecht told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “there’s a lot of ground to cover” to sort out which students were involved in sharing nude images at the school after a report to administrators sparked an investigation last week.

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A student told Peters Township Middle School officials that a male student showed images of nude females on his phone to others. The Post-Gazette reports the images were of female students at the school, but WTAE contends school officials “are not saying specifically if these photos are of other students.”

“We’ve taken the phone from that individual and had a dump done on that,” Fruecht told the Post-Gazette.

Investigators plan to use the information to track down others who may have received the pictures, as well as the original source, a process that’s “far from over,” according to the chief.

School district spokeswoman Shelly Belcher told WTAE the photos were not taken on school property and officials are taking disciplinary action, though it’s unclear how many students will face punishment.

The parents of all students involved were contacted, she said, and the district issued a formal statement.

“All PTMS students took part in a proactive assembly earlier this year detailing the dangers of the inappropriate uses of technology and the related consequences,” the statement read. “This type of behavior will not be tolerated by the Peters Township School District.”

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Fruecht told the Post-Gazette that any student who sends an inappropriate image of themselves to others is not considered a victim under Pennsylvania law, and none of the images appear to have been taken without the subject’s knowledge.

The Peters Township case comes just months after four Chester County middle school students were charged in a sexting and cyberbullying scandal.

The case involved a middle school girl who was allegedly convinced by her then boyfriend to take naked and partially naked pictures he said he would delete. After the two broke up, the boyfriend allegedly distributed the pictures to his buddies and others, which led to intense bullying, ABC 6 reports.

“One of these boys actually took a picture of two adults engaged in a sex act, and pasted … this girl’s face onto that picture and sent it around,” Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said at a press conference in November.

“There are four boys in total that have been charged with criminal offenses. Those criminal offenses range everything from sexting, to harassment, to illegal use of a communications facility, to transmission of obscene materials,” Hogan said, according to the news site.

Three of the boys charged in the Chester County case involved the same girl, who now in high school in the same school district – the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District. A fourth boy was charged in a similar, but unrelated, case that spawned from the initial investigation.

Hogan also met with parents to explain exactly how some students are hiding nude images on their phone using an app that appears to be a calculator, but actually hides encrypted images in a vault, ABC 6 reports.