Wake County schools probe Jeffrey Epstein-themed video game on district devices

Wake County Public School System officials confirmed March 3, 2026 that staff were investigating reports that a video game referencing convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had circulated among students and, in at least some instances, was played on district devices. The statement, provided to reporters in a truncated excerpt, did not identify the game’s title, which schools were involved, or how many district devices were affected.

Local media outreach yielded limited additional comment: WRAL reported that, at the time of its query, "The Wake school system didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The district typically doesn't comment on pending litigation." No other WCPSS spokesperson quotes about the Epstein-themed game are included in the supplied excerpts.

The incident lands amid an ongoing policy debate about student phone use and recording. Govtech/TNS reported that North Carolina law requires students to turn off their phones during instructional time, and that Wake’s rules currently bar elementary and middle school students from using phones at all during the school day while high school students may use phones during lunch and between classes. Govtech/TNS also reported that Wake County is considering whether it can create a "whistleblower protection" that would permit students to turn on their phones to record video for safety reasons such as responding to bullying. Lynn Edmonds, who chairs Wake’s policy committee, asked: "When there is an incident at school and students get their phones out and they start recording, are they in violation of policy at that point?"

The Govtech/TNS coverage framed student-recorded video as a double-edged tool, writing that "Videos recorded by students have helped expose bullying as well as glorify school fights." That framing cites several Wake-area incidents: students at Southeast Raleigh High School posted video of the fatal 2023 stabbing of a student during a fight on campus, a case for which Wake recently agreed to pay the family $800,000; students at Parkland High School in Winston-Salem posted video in 2024 of a student slapping a teacher, and that student was charged with assaulting the teacher; and Rolesville High School saw student-posted videos in 2017 and 2019 showing an SRO slamming a student and school staff knocked to the floor, with the SRO later resigning.

Legal exposure and safety concerns also surfaced in WRAL’s reporting on recent lawsuits. WRAL detailed a complaint filed in Wake Superior Court, saying lawyers allege a Beaverdam Elementary School student was repeatedly assaulted by a second-grade classmate in 2023 and that "at least one of the alleged assaults was reported by students and that the incident was captured on video." According to the complaint, the student is seeking more than $25,000 in damages and lawyers say interim measures, including moving the accused student to another seat and a one-day suspension, did not prevent further assaults.

Superintendent Robert Taylor’s leadership and the school board’s policy committee will face pressure to reconcile those legal and safety stakes with enforcement of the phone ban. The March 3, 2026 investigation into the Epstein-referencing game adds a new flashpoint to debates over whether Wake should carve out narrow recording permissions for safety, how to police inappropriate content on district devices, and how the district responds to incidents that may generate video evidence.