What can we do?

[catnapper]

In our town, there is a website that talks all about the town, the school disctrict, the quality of life, yadda yadda yadda. On this site, there is also a message board that is apparently un-monitored because the kids (teens) have been writing some pretty nasty stuff about each other. About a month ago, my daughter's name popped up - but nothing too nasty... actually pretty predictable. Anyway, the posts about my daughter have gotten out of hand. Someone's threatened her in writing on the site and to her face. The rumors have REALLY gotten out of hand about her too... she has not done anything mentioned (we're not being naive, we know what she's up to... she's into sports and has no time outside of school and sports to actually DO what they say she does.)

What can we do to get the site monitored, the message board removed or the site removed? This is getting serious as she has already been warned by people on the site that they'd attack her over this garbage! We'd like to know how much power we have. Can we sue - not that I'm sue-happy, but this is very obviously libel spurred on by hate.

Grrr. I hate this!

[Karen]

Print out everything. Contact whoever administers the site. Contact whoever owns the site. Demand moderation/removal/apology. Talk to the chief of police as well, as to what recourse you have.

[mugsy]

It is illegal to make threats over the internet, so there should be some sort of charges you could press. Depending on the threat, I would assume that it would range from a misdemeanor to a felony. I would definitely contact the police and possibly a lawyer to see what your options are.

[2kitties]

I don't know but I can sympathize with her. Please let her know she isn't the first girl who's had to deal with this. When I was a sophomore, some boys spraypainted some really rauchy stuff about another girl and me on the side of a wall. It was humiliating. I mean, honestly, at that point in my life, I didn't even know the meaning of what they wrote. I was a regular kid, cheerleading capt, honor society, no trouble. It was just some mean boys playing teenage pranks. But it really hurt nonetheless.
I don't know what you can do on the net- I'm sure Karen's advice is as good as it gets. but I just wanted to let you know it happens to lots of girls who don't deserve it. So she deserves a big hug and it might make her feel better if her daddy gets all mad (a protective daddy is good for a wounded girls spirit )

[catnapper]

Well, I asked my daughter if she had a problem with us going to the police. I think part of her was "yesss! They'll make this go away!" another part of her was "god, can this get any worse"

We are leaning towards waiting til school Tuesday and going to the principal since the verbal threat was during school and the threats online pertain to school. We will decide what to do after that based upon the principal's reaction.

Another option my sister-in-law brought up is calling the girl's parents and asking what their daughter's problem is, and what do they plan on doing about it. I'm not too sure if that's going to change things for the better - she might take the parent's punishment out on my daughter and make matters worse. I also do not know anything about these parents. I know a lot of the parents in the school and know whether or not I could approach them. Not knowing anything about them makes me more tentative about approaching thm.

I am trying to find out who is running the site and seeing what they can do to pull the rumors off the board. They have had problems of a similar nature before.

Things sure have changed since I was in highschool. Rumors remained spoken and nobody made threats where they signed their names to them.

[CatDad]

You have gotten all the goos advice. I really like Karen's.

Good luck with whatever you decided. I hope it is resolved quickly.

[amoore]

Follow Karens advice! Sounds good to me!

[catnapper]

Thank you Karen!!!

I sent the responsible parties on the site an e-mail regarding my concerns and asked them to either monitor or delete the message board function. I had not heard back from them and was beginning to think that they were ignoring me But today I checked the site and both message board and the guest book were removed!!!!! Kids were writing in both areas.

I suppose he couldn't have been bothered to monitor the site Funny thing though is that he has a big banner on his site about "blue ribbon" meanig he thinks the internet should not be censored. If he feels free-speech is so important, then why did he remove the boards? Perhaps his lawyer suggested he do so?

I also got in contact with both the Principal and Superintendant of the school. They really can't do anything unless the girl makes another threat on school property. And if she can't keep her opinion or hands to herself, then we will be going to the police.

Thank you everyone!!! I can rest easy now knowing that I can help control the bad things in life!

[ramanth]

Glad to see something is being done. I hope your daughter remains threat free from now on.