Detectives seized four cellphones Tuesday afternoon at Chaparral High School in Parker after getting a tip from the school's resource officer.
Douglas County Sheriff's deputies said a high school girl's sexually explicit picture could have gone viral, had they not intervened.
As of Wednesday afternoon, detectives had not filed any charges or made arrests.
It was not immediately clear if detectives found images on the phones.
The incident provided a teachable moment at the school, Chaparral High School Principal Ron Peterson said Wednesday.
Peterson sent a letter to teachers and parents about the investigation.
He also says he is trying to talk to as many students and teachers as possible about the crime of "sexting."
"I think the kids are getting the message," Peterson said. "I think we need to as adults get better at delivering that message."
Peterson highlighted the school's cyber security course for all students at the beginning of the school year.
Still, he said more conversation needs to happen at the school.
Douglas County Sheriff's Internet Crimes Against Children Det. Shawn Cronce says she sees "sexting" taking place often in her investigations.
"Every day, every school, every kid encounters it at some point," she said. "I was just taken aback at the attention this did get, because it just seemed like this was something new, and this has been going on for years."
Cronce says thousands of sexually explicit images are distributed among kids each day in Douglas County.
She also says parents should not give their kids privacy on computers or cellphones.
"If I'm going to save my child from becoming a felon by ticking him off that I'm going through his computer, his iPod and his cellphone, so be it," she said.
Douglas County Schools Wellness Coordinator Leslie Clemensen says she sets expectations and for random checks of her daughters' cellphones to ask about unknown friends or suspicious text messages.
She also offered advice for parents about ways to talk about sexting.
"Just talk about, 'Gosh, I saw what happened with Chaparral, and what's that like at your school?' Or, 'What's happening at your school? What's that like with your friends? Are you seeing that?'"
The website thatsnotcool.com offers another vital resource for parents and kids to talk about cyber security.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)