She's a slender, rough-and-tumble sort of girl who looked forward to the end of school when she could let loose during her middle school’s field day activities.
Next to the last day of school, it was her favorite time of year. Last year was different. Last year, instead of running relay races and trying her hand at the balloon toss, she found herself in a virtual tug of war with her Cobb County classmates, two of whom had posted a fake Facebook page using her name. It included distorted photos of her and made false claims about her friends.
“It turned into hell,” the girl's father said Thursday. "It was the worst day of her life."
Early this month, Alexandria Boston filed a defamation suit against the classmates saying they created the fake Facebook page. Her parents hope the suit could lead to legislation that could give schools more authority to stop cyberbullying.
The suit, filed in Cobb County Superior Court, names a boy and girl and their parents, charging them with libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. (Although the Atlanta Journal-Constitution typically does not name juveniles in these types of cases, Alex agreed to use her name because she wants to raise awareness about cyberbullying.)
The students' parents could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Cobb County schools said the district has a policy not to comment on ongoing litigation.
Creating fake Facebook pages to bully someone is not an uncommon practice, said Bill Nigut, the Southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"ADL has a good relationship with Facebook," he said, "and we talk to them pretty regularly about issues like this and other examples of their site being used to promote hatred and bigotry."
Nigut said one of the worst aspects of online bullying is that targets cannot escape it.
"If you’re being bullied in the hallway at school or a restroom or some other location, at least you can find some peace when you go home," he said. "But cyberbullying is ubiquitous."
Nigut said the case will be an interesting one to watch because it may present the court with the question of whether a school or school system can be held legally liable for the activities and behavior of students when they are not on school grounds, on a school bus, at a school-sanctioned off-campus event or at an off-campus athletic facility that schools use for sanctioned activities.
Can a school be held accountable for students’ postings on social media sites, especially if they are using their personal computers at home or other nonschool-related locations?
"We don’t to my knowledge have settled law on this matter," Nigut said.
While the school is not named in the suit, the girl's attorney, Natalie Woodward, said she believes the school should have been able to discipline the students for these actions even though they happened off campus. The school, however, does not have that authority under Georgia law as it stands now, she said.
The girl's parents said they discovered the fake page one day in May when their daughter came home from school crying.
When she finally told her parents why she was so unhappy, her mother went online and found the page.
"It was shocking," she said.
The students had posted a distorted profile photograph of the girl to make her look overweight. It also made false claims of sexual activity and drug use, and it used racial slurs.
"They had not hacked her Facebook page but created a new page," the mother said. "It had taken a lot of time."
Woodward said that when the students offered school officials an explanation they basically said "they didn't like" the girl. The attorney said the students were given two days of in-school suspension for using their cellphones to take photos at school.
The family reported the incident to police but were told no legal action could be taken because no crime had been committed.
They then asked people the girl knew to "defriend" the page and report it to Facebook as fraudulent. They did multiple times but to no avail.
Nearly a year later, the page was still up. The family decided to file suit.
The father said they hope the suit will be the impetus for the General Assembly to create a law that will allow school districts to do more than just offer an apology and penalize students for improper off-campus activities.
"We want to get the law changed not just to protect our daughter but future children as well," the mother said. "We want these kids to realize the impact of their action, how bad it hurt [her daughter] and make parents aware that their kids are doing this kind of stuff."
Neither the family nor Woodward has had contact with the students or their parents. Woodward, however, said that after a story about the incident aired recently on CNN, Facebook officials contacted her to offer an apology.
In a wide-ranging telephone interview Thursday, the family said the girl has been strong throughout this ordeal and that her "real" friends stuck by her after they realized the Facebook page wasn't hers.
"She's been able to enjoy her eighth-grade year without feeling isolated all year long," the mother said. "Another field day is coming up, so that's a good thing."
Tips for parents to combat cyberbullying
- Insist that your children allow you to "friend" them on Facebook.
- Monitor incoming and outgoing postings on your child's Facebook page.
- Make sure your child understands that social media accounts are a privilege, not a right.
- Encourage students not to "like," or in any way perpetuate by sending to other friends, messages of hate.
- For more information about the Anti-Defamation League's CyberAlly training model, log onto www.adl.org.
Source: The Anti-Defamation League
Special report on social media and kids
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gives you unmatched coverage of the issues that affect you and your family. See our recent series on cyberbullying and the impact social media has on college graduates and their future. Go to www.ajc.com/go/bullies and www.ajc.com/go/digitaltrail.
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