[Rinchan]

Saw this on the Mary Sue today.

Girl Sues Over Cyberbullying | The Mary Sue

Basically, some kids at her school made a fake facebook profile in her name and they wrote racist things, sexual stuff and among other horrible things. Her school, the police, and facebook did nothing. So she and her parents are sueing her classmates for libel.

So what do you think? Should teens be allowed to sue their classmates over extreme bullying?

I really hope she wins the case.

[K.A.T]

Good! If no one else did anything, maybe a lawsuit would teach the lesson no one else would teach.

[*Jennifer*]

Originally Posted by K.A.T

Good! If no one else did anything, maybe a lawsuit would teach the lesson no one else would teach.

[fluffycheeks]

I agree with Liz. Plus, it will hopefully set a precedent so other little brats will think twice before pulling this crap on another kid.

[Frackel]

Well if you turn this case around and, god forbid, the girl had done something such as harm herself, or worse, the mother would be able to hold those teens responsible. In fact, she'd have one hell of a case against them.

I'm glad this girl took a different path than the one chosen by many who are victims to this sort of thing. She's standing her ground, despite the fact that others won't stand with her. I commend her 100% on that. Good for her and I hope she wins.

Kids aren't as thick skinned as us adults.(though truth be told we're not even always that thick skinned). I don't know why we expect them to deal with bullying, verbal or physical, in ways we would. It's just not reasonable. No matter how much we try to teach them, and how we try to explain away the hatred and general mean nature. Kids are kids, and they have feelings like anyone else would. Unfortunately for them, theirs get hurt way more often than ours.
But we offer them little to no recourse when we won't help them once they ARE hurt. It's sad, really.
Schools have zero tolerance policies, yet few actually act on them. Schools also have a "outside of our grounds, we don't get involved" sort of policy(not all, I know, but many). So when the **** hits the fan, as it often does, they sit idly by. Then they join the masses who are left wondering when something really bad happens. When they could do so much more beforehand. Kids are only getting worse and worse with this crap because people are pretty much letting them, by doing nothing.

So, imo, cases like this will help set the precedent that if others-like the people who CAN stop it-won't do anything, the victims of bullies are going to start to stand up for themselves in whatever ways the law allows them. Maybe then all those who choose to do nothing, for whatever reason(typically a bs reason) will rethink their decision(s). If for no other reason, cases like this, will make them look like complete idiots.

I'd love to know what the parents of those other kids are thinking right about now. I'd also love to know what that boy and girl are thinking, and what they've got to say about their little stunt. I looked but didn't see any related stories where either actually comment.

[Rinchan]

I agree. I hate when people brush off bullying by saying "Oh being bullied is part of being a kid." Ugh that does absolutely nothing to solve the problem and it gives bullies permission to harass other kids!

Honestly I think calling it bullying just makes light of what is really happening we should call their actions what they are. If a kid shoves another kid in a locker, physical assult, if a kid calls another kid a name, verbal abuse, if a kid pulls down another kid's pants or taunts a girl on her breast size, sexual harrassment. And in some of those cases, kids should be allowed to take legal action against the perpetrator. Think about it, we wouldn't tolerate many of those actions if they were committed against adults.

It's worse when teachers and parents ENCOURAGE bullying. Ugh fathers giving their sons a high five when they brag about what they did to a less popular kid. Or teachers favoring the popular students who bully others. And I hate it when teachers ignore jocks that bully because the foot ball team has a big game that weekend.

And people wonder why kids worship Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. And yes what those two did was terrible. Check out any youtube video on Columbine and you will see that the majority of the comments are kids praising those two on what they did and some even wish that they had the "courage" to do the same. It's pretty scary to see who are bullied feeling that way.

This girl is handling the bullying the correct way and hopefully she will inspire other kids to take that route.

/rant

[Tammyjh]

Originally Posted by Rinchan

It's worse when teachers and parents ENCOURAGE bullying. Ugh fathers giving their sons a high five when they brag about what they did to a less popular kid. Or teachers favoring the popular students who bully others. And I hate it when teachers ignore jocks that bully because the foot ball team has a big game that weekend.

And its twice as bad as worse when its teachers bullying students. And three times as bad when the students have special needs

NJ Father Records Teachers Bullying His Autistic Child

As far as the OP, I agree with everyone else. I also don't know as I would stop with just the students. I would see what kind of legal action I could take against FB if they wouldn't take the page down. Editing to add that it looks like they did finally take the page down....after the girl filed a lawsuit and the story hit the news.

[Repti.Mom]

The mary sue needs a new proof reader : "And when she asked Facebook to take down the fake profile, but they (initially) refused to take down the fake account."

I don't think it will matter if she wins or loses the case, either way it has been brought to attention, and hopefully the parents of those little pissants will at least pay more attention to what they are doing online, and it will give other parents more reason to watch their own kids. I don't think middle school kids should even HAVE a facebook, much less unsupervised time at ANY computer or on ANY phone.