Parents of Dead Teen Sue School Over Sexting Images

[The Straight Story]

Parents of Dead Teen Sue School Over Sexting Images

jessica-loganThe parents of a teenage girl who committed suicide last year are suing the girl’s ex-boyfriend and several other former high school classmates who circulated a nude photo of her and harassed her about the image.

The suit was filed in Ohio by Cynthia and Albert Logan who say that the students’ “degrading sexual insults” caused their 18-year-old daughter Jessica, their only child, severe emotional distress, which led her to kill herself in July 2008, a month after graduating from high school.

The suit names Ryan Salyers, Sara Jane Ramsey, Courtney Richardson and Emily Stachler, as well as a minor identified only as A.R. for severe infliction of emotional distress. Salyers is further accused of invading Jessica’s privacy.

It also names the Sycamore Community Schools Board of Education and Montgomery police officer Paul Payne for being negligent in not ending the “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment” of their daughter and for violating her 14th Amendment rights of equal protection and due process of law. It names the Montgomery municipality for failing to ensure that Payne would take steps to halt the harassment.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/sexting-suit/

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Oh lord.

[distantearlywarning]

2. Victim blamers in 3...2...1...

:popcorn:

[951-Riverside]

4. Different opinions are scary

Let me join you. :popcorn:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. That's always tricky when the victim and the perp are the same person.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. You know what would have prevented this?

If children had not been educated to think that sex and nudity are something to be ashamed of, and harass people over.

The anti-sex mindset KILLS.

[get the red out]

10. Absolutely!

Correct, our mindset is really sick. We are more accepting of kids seeing extremely violent images than the human body. Something is definitely warped about that.

[Odin2005]

12. Exactly! +1

[Blue_Tires]

13. excellent points

and either way, I fail to see how the school is in any way liable..

[tonysam]

5. Another lawsuit filed by an attorney who has promised the parents

a big, fat settlement from the district's insurance company.

There are a lot of those out there, trust me. The lawyers also get a pile of money for taking these cases.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. As bad as I feel for the girl, when something like this happens is when

you pack up and move to LA or New York or wherever the opposite side of the country might be. Geographical cures CAN work, and as she had already graduated there is no reason she couldn't take that option.

I've never understood why people commit suicide over this sort of thing - a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

(None of the above is meant to condone the behavior of the asshole 'boyfriend'.)

[tonysam]

7. I think one can sympathize with the girl and her parents while at the same time

deploring the actions of a shitbag lawyer who sees dollar signs.

[ZombieHorde]

8. Why do you think the lawyer is a shitbag? nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. He's exploiting a dead girl in a meritless case for the sake of squeezing dollars from a school.

Classic shitbaggery.

[tkmorris]

15. Maybe

On the other hand this girl was clearly harassed mercilessly for some time at school after the pictures got out. Does the school have a responsibility to try to protect her from that? Did they do enough in that effort? I don't know.

[Blue_Tires]

14. or; it may have changed things if the girl's attitude was

defiant or nonchalant ("yeah, so what?") about the photos...sadly, the peer-pressure hive mindset tends to pounce when it senses emotional vulnerability or hurt...i think the bigger 'deal' she and her parents made about it only encouraged the asshole EX and his friends...

and i say this as someone mercilessly teased, drawn into fights, goaded into stupid dares, suspended, etc. for many of my school years...