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Miss Sprint Cup

July 9, 2011 by · Comments Off on Miss Sprint Cup 

Miss Sprint CupMiss Sprint Cup, By the time 24 years old, Paige Duke saw the photos that a friend had emailed her, her mother heard her scream from outside the house. “They were nu*de photos of me, and I was in shock. At first I could not believe it,” said Duke.

Six years earlier, just 18 years, Duke was a freshman at Clemson University. That sent the racy photos of her boyfriend, thinking her eyes are the only ones who ever see them.
“I thought it was the way to win her heart, to compete with other girls. I wanted to be the object of her desire, and I thought this was how he did it,” he said.

For years, he thought little of it, and last year got a job as important as Miss Sprint Cup in NASCAR racing circuit. She has to travel, meet thousands of fans, enjoy the thrill of victory lane and be a role model.

That ended when nu*de photos appeared and quickly spread from a mass email to sites on the Internet.

Sprint fired Duke of work.

“I thought my life was over. I thought it was the end of the world,” he said.

His mother, Beverly, also saw the pictures, not knowing they even existed.

“I watched and was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is it? How to get there?'” He said. “This is probably the hardest thing that our family has ever gone through.”

The family has hired lawyers to find and delete images from the Internet, forcing several websites to remove them. They are also seeking the source of the images.

Duke said he called her ex-boyfriend after photos appeared to ask about this.

“I said, ‘How could you do something to me? And he said’ I do not know what you’re talking, ‘” he said.

She is not sure how the pictures ended up online after six years and I actually had possession of the equipment came from.

Duke is humble about the experience and understands why Sprint had to let go. He had a morality clause in her contract with the company and knows that she was raped.

However, instead of hiding it, decided that the face and tell her story.

“I was devastated,” he said. “I felt helpless. I felt betrayed.”

Sexting is common among adolescents and often has devastating personal and emotional. Duque said he wants to talk to young people about it.

“Something that I think is private will not always be private. It only takes one person who wants to lose. Who thinks that after six years, these images are going to come back to haunt me?” He said.

Duque added: “If I can save a girl from committing the same mistake, and think twice before this will be something positive,” he said.

If the person responsible is caught, he or she could face charges of invasion of privacy and copyright. Duke is not sure that will never happen, but she wants justice.

“I’m not seeking revenge, but I want to feel some warmth, to feel part of what has been true for me,” he said.

As for future plans, said he hopes to visit schools in the area and to reach teens with her story about the dangers of sexting.

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