School Violence and Slander
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8 Feb 2001
In the days after Columbine, school officials around the country pleaded with students to inform on classmates if they suspected that their peers were planning a violent act.
Now it seems that a student who did that was sued over doing just that. A high school freshmen overheard a boy at her school say "We want to kill people, we’re sick of them." She reported this to the school, and the boy later threatened her for doing so.
The boy was kicked out of school and charged with making terrorist threats and threatening a witness. The expulsion from school was overturned, so the boy’s parents sued the girl and her parents. This suit was thrown out of court as a frivolous lawsuit, but not before the girl’s family had racked up $40,000 in legal fees.
The girls parents want the school to be responsible for the fees. And they should be. If the schools want students to be their eyes and ears, then they have to protect those students.