Making a Fake Gay Facebook Page About Your Principal Isn’t Defamation in Texas
Most of the time, students who go to court are objecting to punishment for stunts such as making fake Facebook profiles about their principal. In this case it is the principal, Anna Draker, who went after offensive students in court.
Benjamin Schreiber and Ryan Todd, two 16-year-old Clark High School students, posted a false MySpace page about her in March 2006. The page was online for about a month before Draker learned of it. She contacted MySpace, who removed the page.
Besides disciplining the students and filing a criminal complaint, she also sought cash and accountability from the students and their parents due to defamation and emotional distress. The court of first hearing ruled that the exaggerated statements were not false assertions of fact, and so were not legally defamation.
The Texas appeals court upheld both the dismissal of the negligence and distress charges. The school’s punishment of the students was never challenged, and the principal’s claims for damages was entirely unsuccessful.
Perhaps because I’d likely have lampooned my high school faculty if the Internet were available to me then, I’m glad that faculty won’t be seeking civil damages for bad behavior. And, for any faculty from Moline High School who may be reading this entry, I’m still sorry for my past transgressions, which really did seem funny at the time.
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1 Response to "Making a Fake Gay Facebook Page About Your Principal Isn’t Defamation in Texas"
September 12, 2015
Does anyone have any idea what happened to the two boys criminally? I hope they won’t pay for this for the rest of their life by having felonies on their records?