April 9, 2007 11:00 AM PDT
Principal sues ex-students over MySpace profiles
- Related Stories
-
MySpace sues 'Spam King' Richter
January 22, 2007 -
Universal sues MySpace for copyright violations
November 17, 2006 -
MySpace reaching out to parents
April 11, 2006
Eric Trosch was principal of Hickory High School in Hermitage, Penn., at the time the short-lived profiles went up on the popular social-networking site. He claims that the students committed defamation by posting three separate profiles bearing his name, official school portrait and a host of "unsubstantiated allegations, derogatory comments and false statements" about him, according to a complaint filed last month in Mercer County, Penn., civil court.
Each of the disputed sites, which went online during the course of one week in December 2005, was removed within days of its appearance after school officials contacted MySpace.com. Trosch has since become principal of Hermitage Middle School.
One profile, which the complaint claims was created by a student named Thomas Cooper, listed an unnamed pornographic flick as Trosch's favorite movie, according to the complaint. Another profile, allegedly posted by students Christopher and Brendan Gebhart, claimed he "liked to have sex with students and brutalize women." A third profile said he "kept a keg of beer behind his desk at school, was on steroids, and smoked marijuana," the court filing said.
The latter posting, which the complaint attributes to Justin Layshock, is already the subject of a federal lawsuit that has been wending its way through court since early last year.
Layshock--then a 17-year-old Hickory High School senior with a 3.3 GPA--and his parents sued Trosch and the Hermitage school district over the school's response to the incident. Its response included suspending him from school and placing him in an alternative education program that allegedly prevented him from progressing with his normal coursework. That complaint argues the school's actions were excessive, violated Layshock's First Amendment free-speech rights, and interfered with his parents' freedom to judge how best to raise and educate their son.
See more CNET content tagged:
MySpace, court, profile, school, student
82 comments
Join the conversation! Add your comment (Log in or register)
Welcome to The Real World.
/P
The internet is just the next thing past writing or engraving juvenile prose on the bathroom walls. We should just be thankful its not costly to us taxpayers like real vandalism.
In my opinion, this high school principal should be terminated as he does not show himself to be leadership material. If you can?t let dissent roll of your back and rise above you have no business leading people. Imagine the world if President Bush started suing everyone that called him a draft dodging, coke snorting, drunk, with bad grades.
liable. It is one thing for a student to pass natsy notes or post
something rude on their page. These kids created pages in his
name and then repeatedly slandered them. As a professional he
has the right to say that is too far. The internet is highly
different then a bathroom wall, and this could follow him
through out his career.
"Imagine the world if President Bush started suing everyone that
called him a draft dodging, coke snorting, drunk, with bad
grades."
Those are true statements. Nothing these kids publicly wrote
are valued as true.
You think it's too rough? Then tell me what you think would happen if these kids did the same thing years later... about their boss or CEO. I'm very sure that unemployment and (in many career fields) a big, fat blackballing would come along as a result.
Better they get it now, when there's time to repair the damage and learn from it, than later, when the kid's entire career goes down the crapper due to some stupid prank.
/P
Fortunately, those lawsuits will help others, like the poster above, learn about what rights are and what they aren't, without costing them a nickel.
The internet didn't magically change the US libel laws.
I so sick of whiny people like this principle crying to the courts becaus etheir feelings have been hurt. I deal with negative comments about myslef all the time. The difference is that I have to deal with comments from all over our great nation. Poor baby. Ahh, someone needs a binky.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel" target="_newWindow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel</a>
/P
Your Right to Freedom of Speech ENDS where another person's begins.
Now... if you want to go and say "Well can the school punish a kid if it was on a personal level" then yes... the case has some water to step in. It was debated at my school when the same occured... if he didn't access it at school... didn't create it at school... didn't advertise it at school... he seperated his personal and school lives. Its like cursing at home and being suspended at school for it.
These students should be ashamed of their children's poor behavior. The parents should demand that their children apoligize for they did and said to Mr. Trosch. Their children were punished for what they did, as they should be. Now Layshock's parents think they have the right to sue? That is outrageous, no wonder why their kid is a mess. They need a counselor not a lawyer. They obiviously lack the morals and character for good parenting, Thinking they should be rewarded for their poor behavior, now that is the saddest part of this whole story.
For the principal to prevail he should need to show that someone took the kids stunts seriously.
It would have been better if the students had just used Photoshop to make him a butt-head. (Search Google for - butt-head astronomer sagan - if you are curious.)
All the lawsuits show is that we have become a nation of hyper-sensitive potential plaintiffs hoping to strike it rich. Sad.
If the student had slapped the principal, no one would be shocked that the student was punished. The child instead slanders the principal - and the principal is supposed to just deal with it. I think there are some screwed up values here.
However, he has no right to use his official power to retaliate against the students, most especially for actions that took place outside of school. Indeed, there is a good 14 Amendment argument that such treatment is unconstitutional.
How did the students damage his reputation if the profiles were clearly fakes and parodies?
Putting the question of law aside--who is this thin-skinned jerk?!? People like Trosch are bullies in suits who are more interested in putting kids "in their place" than helping them develop into adults.
My high school's vice principal, Dave Connolly, was like this--more interested in handing down detentions and bullying students than making the school a safe and pleasant environment. Everyone called him "Brave Dave" because we all knew he was a coward. Back when the students were allowed to put on a show, Connolly was regularly parodied as a heavy-handed buffoon. You didn't see any lawsuits coming from that...
I hope Eric Trosch has an easier time at the Middle School. Poor baby.
need I say more?
need I say more?
See Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974)
Even though he is a government employee in a position of power he may not be Public individual re Gertz.
Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1 (1990)? muddies the case even further.
next time you consider vandalism... be it car windows or people's
reputations.
Little fuvkers are lucky he didn't lose it and break some face... You
shvits ever hear of the "Golden Rule?" ***, I'd do the couple years
probation for a provoked attack... Jus sayin'
Grow up. If Trosch actually did that, his teaching career would be over in a second. And he'd face jail time PLUS a civil lawsuit.
Maybe you think Eric Trosch is in the right. Did you know that he forced one of the students, a kid who was taking AP classes and tutoring other students in French, to enroll in an "alternative-learning environment" for kids who couldn't cope with normal classroom settings?
This ALE group met for only three hours a day. One of their assignments was to build a pyramid out of paper clips in order to learn about team-work. Does that sound like a good punishment--taking a very strong student and preventing him from getting a good high school education?
Trosch is a loser and a jerk. Maybe you two have a lot in common.
They crossed the line by implying sexual impropriety which could potentially pave the way for his life both professionally and otherwise to be ruined.
From what I understand, the kid posed as the principal then posted a fake profile as that principal.
Is then it ok on MY Space to pose as someone else then post a fake profile?
So to those of you who say "just shrug it off", or that "the principle is too thin-skinned", or "the school over-reacted", you've clearly shown you all fail to understand the ramifications of an accusation of sexual impropriety on a person's professional career and personal life. In fact, you're all clearly ignorant, your opinions have zero merit, and any posts by you here are of as much value as the grunting of pigs on the farm.
regardless of whether sexual impropriety is alleged or not as long as the work is not making an actual assertion of fact or understood by as a reasonable person as not being credible it as protected speech.
see: Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46
And since the parties are civilian your UCMJ arguments are meaningless.
You do realize that there are websites designed and created with the only purpose to embarrass modify, defame and cruxify people that have pissed off other people? I could give you a list. Should they be covered under the freedom of speech. I think not!
Check out: dontdatehim.com playersandpsychos.com cheaternews.com.
I love this one: on survivinginfidelity.com if you post I believe its 52 messages you are let into a "secret" forum for investigative issues. In other words, if you post enough on that site, you can get into a forum on how to get revenge by posting on the above listed sites, hacking into email accounts...
At least myspace takes the profiles off when contacted. Some of the sites I listed above do not. playersandpsychos does but the others will not!
But, contrary to popular student opinion, the average school administrator does not meet the test of being a "public person," when it comes to parody, libel (publishing) or slander (speech) and as such has the right to sue in a civil court of law. But, they also have the burden of establishing a level of "damage" that can be awarded by a judge or jury.
Another consideration is that anyone can just about sue for anything and whether the case has merit or not, the defending party incurs a tremendous legal expense whether they win the case or not.
Parents are legally responsible for the actions of their minor children and these type suits are usually ruinous to a family's finances. So, while we all enjoy the freedom of speech card, it must be used responsibly like the Second Amendment.
I spent more than 30 years as a newspaper writer and editor and I spiked many a story that did not have proper support and documentation, even if I knew the story to be true because unless you can prove an allegation then the risk of litigation is real- just to keep you quiet. I was also sued several times and our paper(s) prevailed, but still ended up paying thousands to our attorney.
If this happened in a town where I was editor, the editorial would say that the student was wrong for being disrespectful, but the principal was more wrong for using his or her office to extract revenge.
The instructor, as the allegedly wrong party, does however, have the right to bring civil suit.
If any of the cyberstalking laws were applicable you can bet that some overzealous DA would have brought criminal charges against the students. But, since that has not happened, it is likely that no actual criminal activity as taken place.
Most of those who don't take this seriously realize that many school administrator are hopelessly authoritarian stuffed shirts, who are both too sensitive about their "authority" and often little tin pot dictators that get a rush from exercising their "power".
In short, if the administrator wins his suit then the students went to far. If he loses we see that it is just the whining of a petty bureaucrat who has been taken down a notch.
Bring this up with your children.
Bring this up with your children.
So technically it is not a crime.