School Bullying

[Misty]

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and the implementing FTC trade regulation rule require that a Web site that collects information from children under thirteen must generally:

provide parents with notice (both online and in a way reasonably calculated to reach parents) of the information it collects from children, how it uses the information, and with whom it shares the information;obtain verifiable parental consent for collection, use and disclosure of personally- identifiable data from minors;provide parents wit h reasonable means to review the collected data and to refuse to allow its further use or maintenance;give parents the option to allow collection and use of the child's personal information for the specific site without consenting to disclosure to third parties;not condition a child's participation in a game, the offering of a prize, or another activity on the child disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity; andestablish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of personal information collected from children.- See more at: Privacy Law in Q1 2002 - FindLaw

I'm not a lawyer and don't profess to be but one would think that privacy rights went out the window when the attacker and friends uploaded the video themselves to an Instagram account with the hashtag #baileygothera$$beat. I also think privacy is a 2 way street. The victim had a right not to be sucker punched and have the video uploaded against her will and consent. The subsequent video that was uploaded to social media was done so with the victims mother and the victim agreeing to place the video on the bullying site which the Defuniak Herald originally published and is also pictured by WMBB. It should also be said that neither the sucker puncher or the victim are identifiable in the video and the perpetrators claimed "the victory" by identifying themselves when they took to social media admitting to being on out of school suspension/expulsion for their participation.

As for the other parents...well you have to wonder why the parents aren't aware of what their children are doing online (some still seem oblivious) and allowed their 12 year old children to create a social media account(s) (there is more than one account and more than one 12 year old involved) which is a VIOLATION of the Terms of Service for FB and at least 2 of those accounts maybe 3 have been deactivated by FB. The sucker punchers account was deactivated by the "parents". I think that children(s) privacy also goes out the window when said "children" contact or send unsolicited messages with threats to do bodily harm to adults and actively participate on social media with other "alleged" adults who have also made threats and defended the actions of the sucker puncher. I guess I should also note that the VICTIM has never had a social media account and she isn't responsible for any of those images being published...those can all be laid directly at the feet of the alleged adults and 12 year old bullies.

 

[Misty]

Queen Carlene really gives some thoughtful insight in the WMBB article.

You are not the only one to suggest that she made a complete A$$ out of herself.

Telling the public outright lies about not have this level of bullying! Lie. Lie. Lie.

Yes that is an outright lie. School board policy actually does address crimes committed by children and ZERO tolerance. The 2nd Amendment to the constitution also provides that you have an absolute right to protect yourself from harm. However, every court in this nation has historically upheld as a crime the act of sucker punching someone because it does not adequately give the victim time to defend themselves. A CRIME was committed at WMS and that is the issue the mother of the victim is still trying to get the school board to address.

Her quote should have been, "... these incidents occur all the time, unfortunately a stupid kid video taped it and a brave parent just so happened to post the incident online and now its got broad media attention.

The video went viral and there is more than one parent who shared it. I wouldn't go so far as to say that incidents of this severity happen all the time in the Walton County School District because I don't know that that statement is true. I do however know that other parents have voiced their concerns on the website created for the victim and on social media about their own children being bullied in Walton County and they do have concerns that the problems are not being adequately addressed. I have also made it a point not to call names or bash the perpetrators (children) or refer to them as "stupid kids". I admit their behavior leaves allot to be desired and I have made it my every point to bash their actions. There is a substantial difference!

 

[FoX]

I'm not a lawyer and don't profess to be but one would think that privacy rights went out the window when the attacker and friends uploaded the video themselves to an Instagram account with the hashtag #baileygothera$$beat. I also think privacy is a 2 way street. The victim had a right not to be sucker punched and have the video uploaded against her will and consent. The subsequent video that was uploaded to social media was done so with the victims mother and the victim agreeing to place the video on the bullying site which the Defuniak Herald originally published and is also pictured by WMBB. It should also be said that neither the sucker puncher or the victim are identifiable in the video and the perpetrators claimed "the victory" by identifying themselves when they took to social media admitting to being on out of school suspension/expulsion for their participation.

As for the other parents...well you have to wonder why the parents aren't aware of what their children are doing online (some still seem oblivious) and allowed their 12 year old children to create a social media account(s) (there is more than one account and more than one 12 year old involved) which is a VIOLATION of the Terms of Service for FB and at least 2 of those accounts maybe 3 have been deactivated by FB. The sucker punchers account was deactivated by the "parents". I think that children(s) privacy also goes out the window when said "children" contact or send unsolicited messages with threats to do bodily harm to adults and actively participate on social media with other "alleged" adults who have also made threats and defended the actions of the sucker puncher. I guess I should also note that the VICTIM has never had a social media account and she isn't responsible for any of those images being published...those can all be laid directly at the feet of the alleged adults and 12 year old bullies.

Not sure about that. Yes they spread it, but now walking everything back and closing accounts. So did they give up rights to privacy now?

 

[Misty]

Not sure about that. Yes they spread it, but now walking everything back and closing accounts. So did they give up rights to privacy now?

Again, neither the victim nor the sucker puncher and her cohorts in crime are identifiable in that video. Only the sucker punchers family deactivated her account but not before publicly admitting she was the sucker puncher, the others were deactivated by FB for violations of TOS age requirements.

Had the sucker puncher and or friends and family wanted privacy chances are they would not have used social media as an opportunity to blame the victim for being sucker punched.

 

[Misty]

P.S. Fox...That these 12 year old's now want to backtrack actions that they themselves downloaded to social media is not my problem! You can't have your cake and eat it too....either you are loud and proud of what you've done or you're not!! If they are ashamed of their actions they should be loud and proud about that also. What they have said and done in defense of their actions should be a concern to EVERY parent in this district as well as the Walton County School System and the police.

 

[Misty]

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and the implementing FTC trade regulation rule require that a Web site that collects information from children under thirteen must generally:

provide parents with notice (both online and in a way reasonably calculated to reach parents) of the information it collects from children, how it uses the information, and with whom it shares the information;obtain verifiable parental consent for collection, use and disclosure of personally- identifiable data from minors;provide parents wit h reasonable means to review the collected data and to refuse to allow its further use or maintenance

I also believe that parents have an ABSOLUTE OBLIGATION/RESPONSIBILITY TO SOCIETY to ensure that they monitor their children(s) behavior online and to ENSURE that said children are not acting like online terrorists! Since that didn't happen, you are hard pressed to convince me that some of these children are protected under the law you cited.

Again, I'm not an attorney but I do believe there is one hell of an argument to be made when dealing with this type of behavior.

 

[Misty]

Sheriff Adkinson did one of his live sessions today and while he did not comment on the specifics of this particular incident basically what he did say was, that the Sheriff's Office has a great SRO team that works closely with students to ensure that they know that this type of behavior isn't acceptable, that there are consequences for their actions, that there should not just be punitive actions and that the SRO's work with kids in ways that changes the behavior.

In this case (one of the most violent in the Walton County School system that I can recall) changing the behavior was an epic failure in the almost 2 weeks that followed. <--- That comment is not directed at the Sheriff or SRO team personally but more at the adults and children that took to social media after the incident occurred and continued to victimize the victim with vicious attacks that she somehow deserved what she got and that the perpetrator was "just defending" herself.

I do think it's possible to change children(s) behavior but I also believe that's its a parents job to teach their children that it is never OK to sucker punch someone. Its a crime! Had that happened this thread may never have existed.

Let me also add that for the most part the behavior of the perps (including the perps friends/parents actions) have died down in the last 2 days...perhaps because 3 of the children no longer have social media access (at least not under the names they have previously used) 1 (one) actually did create another account yesterday by using a different name when she couldn't log into hers which was promptly reported as a violation of FB TOS. I think they have also finally realized that their comments provoked allot of people in Defuniak to stand up against their nonsense.

And for all you folks gossiping and rumoring about who "Misty" is, yes, I am Lynda Diann and yes, I did upload the video to YouTube and to my own FB page. Yes, I am partly responsible for the video going viral and setting my page to public and for contacting some of the media but I had a whole lot of awesome people in this community that I have known since my daughter was a student in the Walton County School System helping me. I make NO apologies for anything I've done and who I am really is irrelevant but I thought I should put the gossiping and rumoring to rest.

It takes a village!

 

[John G]

Misty, you have always had my support (and others) with this outing of school violence in Walton County. I think it's terrible that you were threatened and that this was exposed through social media.

While we do have good SROs, they are only as good as they are allowed to be and I've heard report after report about how the School District likes to "keep everything in house", from tales of torrid teacher Affairs, drug abuse and most recently, violence.

You and I will continue to differ on Sheriff Mike. His people are good and try their best. He, on the other hand is a masterful politician and knows the Walton Two Step good enough to win Dancing With The Stars!

Has a charge been brought against the assailant? Is this going to be another incident like the elderly Pastor that was attacked?

The more the schools try to cover up what actually goes on inside the four walls, the more critizm and push back they will get.

 

[Misty]

While we do have good SROs, they are only as good as they are allowed to be and I've heard report after report about how the School District likes to "keep everything in house"

When this first occurred there was EVERY effort by the School District and Law Enforcement to keep this quiet and in all probability, it would have remained one of the District's dirty little secrets if the father of the victim (her parents are divorced) and school staff and the police had been able to keep the victims mother and friends from going public. The first attempt to go public was the web site mentioned by WMBB and actually posted by the Defuniak Herald which was later removed by the Herald after the victims father demanded it be taken down, first by the Herald and later by intimidating a local, small business owner with the threat of a law suit. There was also some effort to keep the victims mother from clearly understanding her rights to file criminal charges by the same aforementioned parties. The School Administration also told Staff that they were not to discuss the incident with anyone! (It was actually a teacher at WMS who told me personally that the perpetrator had been expelled and others involved had been severely dealt with.) When it became apparent that "severely dealt with" was a joke and the perpetrators took to social media to blame the victim for being sucker punched is actually when I got involved. A law suit didn't intimidate me (you can't get blood from a turnip) and I am not held to the same standards as the Herald. There were T-shirts made and the victims father implied that the shirts were an effort to profit off his child. The shirts were actually designed last year after the victim wrote a paper about bullying which was going to be added to the website to "stop" bullying. I was asked to upload the video, set my profile to public and ask folks to share the video. The rest as they say, is history. With the help of lots of folks and sending the video to media outlets as well, the video went viral. It was no longer the school districts dirty little secret.

To answer your question, yes the mother has filed criminal charges but myself and others feel that with the expulsion of the perpetrator the State won't bring charges on the recommendation of the Sheriff and school administration. Officials involved have not kept the victims mother informed as to if or when the perp will be formally charged. I also contacted the police regarding the threats and I have admitted my participation. While I don't feel there is a need at this point to file charges (the perps really have not done anything except run their mouths with verbal threats and harassment) I was told that they would get with the Sheriff and wanted to see the images and actions I have of these individuals. That didn't happen either...but in fairness their social media actions have died down in the last 2 days.

Now, myself and others believe that the hope (by law enforcement and school officials) is this will all die down and go away. Sadly, the message that sends to our kids is that it's OK to commit a CRIME because the worst that can happen is that you'll be sent to the academy.

 

[John G]

To answer your question, yes the mother has filed criminal charges but myself and others feel that with the expulsion of the perpetrator the State won't bring charges on the recommendation of the Sheriff and school administration. Officials involved have not kept the victims mother informed as to if or when the perp will be formally charged. I also contacted the police regarding the threats and I have admitted my participation. While I don't feel there is a need at this point to file charges (the perps really have not done anything except run their mouths with verbal threats and harassment) I was told that they would get with the Sheriff and wanted to see the images and actions I have of these individuals. That didn't happen either...but in fairness their social media actions have died down in the last 2 days.

Thanks for the info.

Why would "they" have to get with the Sheriff about anything? Don't "they" have a badge and the full authority of the State of Florida? Or is the office run with a Micromanagement Style?

See this is a political issue now and Mike has to get involved and run damage control.

Does the sheriff review all cases? No, he doesn't. I guess we don't have anyone that can make their own decisions up there when it comes to taking an incident report or making an arrest. It has to go through multiple levels of bureaucracy and jump numerous hoops.

Its all about control and being able to control who gets a report, who gets arrested...