School Climate & Safety

Bullied Girl’s Family Files Defamation of Character Lawsuit

By Cindy George, Houston Chronicle (MCT) — June 17, 2011 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Who sues kids for cyberbullying? A Houston lawyer does when his daughter becomes the target of a nasty video posted on Facebook, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Harris County.

Last month, three Kingwood students who attend Riverwood Middle School filmed themselves offering unkind words about a classmate, then uploaded the video to the social networking site, the civil complaint says.

The targeted child’s father, Jason Medley, provided the video to school officials, then sent cease-and-desist demands to the three girls and their parents. The letters said he would sue if the youngsters didn’t stop all communication with his daughter and if their families did not donate at least $5,000 each to the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, an Oregon nonprofit.

Receiving no response by his early June deadline, one of Medley’s colleagues filed a defamation of character lawsuit on Tuesday against the three girls, accusing them of making defamatory and false statements that “impute sexual impropriety and misconduct” on his daughter. The complaint also alleged that the video includes threats to physically harm the girl and seeks a permanent injunction to prevent the three from further contacting her.

Medley declined to be interviewed for this report. The Chronicle is not naming any of the children involved.

Riverwood officials confirmed the incident, Humble ISD spokeswoman Karen Collier said in an email.

‘A Very Novel Approach’

The recording was not done on school property and did not involve a district website. The Chronicle was unable to obtain a copy of the video, which has been removed from Facebook.

When reached by phone, the mother of one of the girls said that the three told their principal “they were sorry and didn’t mean any of it.” Another girl’s father declined to comment, and efforts to reach the parents of a third girl were unsuccessful.

Without commenting specifically about this case, Collier said that school officials who become aware of activity that could be cyberbullying—even occurrences off campus—would contact parents of the students involved to discuss the incident and an administrator would talk with each child.

“If a child was concerned about his or her safety—or if the parents were concerned—that child and those he/she were concerned about would be shadowed while at school for as long as necessary,” Collier said, adding that parents also could contact law enforcement, who can decide whether charges are appropriate.

It is unclear whether Medley reported the video to Houston police or other authorities with jurisdiction in Kingwood.

This case appears to be the first this year among about three dozen defamation of character lawsuits filed in Harris County to include children as defendants. At least three others involve information disseminated on the Web.

Nancy Willard, founder and executive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, thinks Medley’s lawsuit is “a very novel approach” and had no idea that the Kingwood dad suggested a sizable donation to her nonprofit as an alternative resolution.

“I think this father is trying to be a parent that the other girls do not apparently have,” said Willard, a former special education teacher and education technology consultant. “Think of the lesson he is teaching his own daughter: You do not have to put up with someone hurting you. You can calmly and strongly say ‘stop,’ and I have your back.”

Fighting Cyberbullying

Though cyberbullying is overblown as “epidemic,” Willard said, research shows that roughly 1 in 4 young people report having hurtful information sent to them or posted about them and that half of those children said they dealt with the situation fairly easily. She has fought online harassment for more than a decade for reasons that include being bullied and called “Weirdo Willard” in junior high.

“We’re never going to stop all of this, but we really have to focus on increasing the skills of teenagers in being able to respond effectively as well as increasing our skills as adults in helping them respond,” said Willard, who is also an attorney. “What you do online can cause harm. The emergence of these legal consequences is a way to say ‘Hey, wait a minute. There is a line here and you are crossing that line or have crossed that line big time and you need to be held accountable.' "

Related Tags:

Copyright (c) 2011, Houston Chronicle. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Events

Student Well-Being Webinar After-School Learning Top Priority: Academics or Fun?
Join our expert panel to discuss how after-school programs and schools can work together to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.
Budget & Finance Webinar Leverage New Funding Sources with Data-Informed Practices
Address the whole child using data-informed practices, gain valuable insights, and learn strategies that can benefit your district.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Classroom Technology Webinar
ChatGPT & Education: 8 Ways AI Improves Student Outcomes
Revolutionize student success! Don't miss our expert-led webinar demonstrating practical ways AI tools will elevate learning experiences.
Content provided by Inzata

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety It's Not ChatGPT That's the Problem. It's Binary Thinking
A lot of either-or arguments have been playing out in K-12 education over the past few years.
2 min read
051023 Lead Sym Lauraine jb BS
Chris Ferenzi for Education Week
School Climate & Safety Drivers Illegally Pass Buses 42 Million Times a Year. What Schools Can Do
A handful of students are killed each year getting on and off school buses. Schools can take some steps to try to make a difference.
6 min read
Crime scene tape cordons off a school bus as police officers from the Indiana State Police, Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department and Columbus Police Department investigate a hit and run involving a student and a vehicle at a bus stop on South Gladstone Avenue in Columbus, Ind., on Aug. 30, 2021.
Crime scene tape cordons off a school bus as police officers from the Indiana State Police, Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department and Columbus Police Department investigate a hit-and-run involving a student and a vehicle at a bus stop on South Gladstone Avenue in Columbus, Ind., on Aug. 30, 2021. About eight students per year are killed boarding or getting off of school buses.
Mike Wolanin/The Republic via AP
School Climate & Safety Uvalde Victim's Mother Perseveres Through Teaching, Connecting With Daughter's Memory
Veronica Mata says she sometimes steps outside her classroom to collect herself or talk out her grief.
6 min read
Veronica Mata visits the gravesite of her daugher, Tess, in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. For Mata, teaching kindergarten in Uvalde after her daughter was among the 19 students who were fatally shot at Robb Elementary School became a year of grieving for her own child while trying to keep 20 others safe. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
School Climate & Safety Photo Essay Photos: A Year of Grieving and Struggling for Answers After Uvalde School Shooting
A year after a gunman killed 21 people in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, the community still searches for answers.
3 min read
A mourner stops to pay his respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School, created to honor the victims killed in the recent school shooting, June 9, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
A mourner stops to pay his respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School, created to honor the victims killed in the recent school shooting, June 9, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
Eric Gay/AP