Article in NYT today re: students, tik tok and targeting teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

+1000

But I'd add that it might not even be tossed on SJ, it would be tossed on motion to dismiss.

Also a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

oops, you dropped your college fund

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could see this being a thing that teens/tweens just think is absolutely hilarious, but it also sounds like they went entirely too far with it. You can parody your teacher’s manner of speaking or their assignments. You can’t call them pedophiles. I hope the teachers unions come down hard on this and advocate for hard rules on no phones in the classroom. It will protect themselves and the kids too. Such a no brainer but everyone wants to make it sound like the most difficult thing ever.

No, you CAN’T parody your teacher. That’s also not okay. I see how that’s not as serious as the TikTok issue, but it’s a slippery slope.

Teachers shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Dangit. The job is already ridiculously hard without this. And stop expecting teachers to police phones. YOU are the parent. YOU police your child and YOU come down hard on them when they use the phone inappropriately. We can’t expect teachers to fix all of society on 60K and no sleep.

Of course you can parody a teacher. That's protected speech.

May be legal, but still not okay.

Parodying a teacher is absolutely fine. They're public figures from the perspective of the students. It's no different than you parodying a politician.

And now we know why teachers are fleeing.

No. It isn’t absolutely fine. Not at all. I don’t care if it’s legal. If I found out my child was mocking a teacher, I wouldn’t need the court system to penalize them. I’d be doing it myself. Harshly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I don't care if it ultimately cost the family lawyer's fees or whatever. I care that I send a message that the school completely under-reacted and the students don't seem to acknowledge the impact of their actions - one admits that she didn't mean to get suspended! One said they'll continue to do this "but private" so they don't get caught. Because of this, I would gather the other teachers involved and go to the police with the purpose of causing the students, their parents, and the superintendent to take time out of their oh-so-busy lives to deal with the situation. I would also try suggest that teachers in the school refuse to have those students in their classes next year. The goal would be disrupt their lives a bit, make things harder for the parents and the superintendent, so that there's pressure on these kids and their classmates who watched them get away with it to not do this again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could see this being a thing that teens/tweens just think is absolutely hilarious, but it also sounds like they went entirely too far with it. You can parody your teacher’s manner of speaking or their assignments. You can’t call them pedophiles. I hope the teachers unions come down hard on this and advocate for hard rules on no phones in the classroom. It will protect themselves and the kids too. Such a no brainer but everyone wants to make it sound like the most difficult thing ever.

No, you CAN’T parody your teacher. That’s also not okay. I see how that’s not as serious as the TikTok issue, but it’s a slippery slope.

Teachers shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Dangit. The job is already ridiculously hard without this. And stop expecting teachers to police phones. YOU are the parent. YOU police your child and YOU come down hard on them when they use the phone inappropriately. We can’t expect teachers to fix all of society on 60K and no sleep.

Of course you can parody a teacher. That's protected speech.

May be legal, but still not okay.

Parodying a teacher is absolutely fine. They're public figures from the perspective of the students. It's no different than you parodying a politician.

And now we know why teachers are fleeing.

No. It isn’t absolutely fine. Not at all. I don’t care if it’s legal. If I found out my child was mocking a teacher, I wouldn’t need the court system to penalize them. I’d be doing it myself. Harshly.

Ever watch late night TV? They're parodying public figures in their monologues/acts all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

Because lawyer's can be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

Because lawyer's can be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case.

You must not have read the article. The fact that these little sociopaths got away with what they did and that the teachers wanting redress is called "frivolous" shows a lot of lawyers are idiots who think they're playing chess when they can't even play checkers. Safe to assume that these little darlings will soon be targeting classmates, neighbors and later their coworkers with much more realistic AI deepfakes because hey--no consequences!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

Because lawyer's can be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case.

You must not have read the article. The fact that these little sociopaths got away with what they did and that the teachers wanting redress is called "frivolous" shows a lot of lawyers are idiots who think they're playing chess when they can't even play checkers. Safe to assume that these little darlings will soon be targeting classmates, neighbors and later their coworkers with much more realistic AI deepfakes because hey--no consequences!

If those profiles seemed *at all* plausible, rather than being obvious parodies, then you obviously already have reason to question their suitability to be around kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could see this being a thing that teens/tweens just think is absolutely hilarious, but it also sounds like they went entirely too far with it. You can parody your teacher’s manner of speaking or their assignments. You can’t call them pedophiles. I hope the teachers unions come down hard on this and advocate for hard rules on no phones in the classroom. It will protect themselves and the kids too. Such a no brainer but everyone wants to make it sound like the most difficult thing ever.

No, you CAN’T parody your teacher. That’s also not okay. I see how that’s not as serious as the TikTok issue, but it’s a slippery slope.

Teachers shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Dangit. The job is already ridiculously hard without this. And stop expecting teachers to police phones. YOU are the parent. YOU police your child and YOU come down hard on them when they use the phone inappropriately. We can’t expect teachers to fix all of society on 60K and no sleep.

Of course you can parody a teacher. That's protected speech.

May be legal, but still not okay.

Parodying a teacher is absolutely fine. They're public figures from the perspective of the students. It's no different than you parodying a politician.

And now we know why teachers are fleeing.

No. It isn’t absolutely fine. Not at all. I don’t care if it’s legal. If I found out my child was mocking a teacher, I wouldn’t need the court system to penalize them. I’d be doing it myself. Harshly.

Ever watch late night TV? They're parodying public figures in their monologues/acts all the time.

.


Teachers are not public figures.

Head of the local school board, maybe. Some random fourth grade teacher? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

Because lawyer's can be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case.

You must not have read the article. The fact that these little sociopaths got away with what they did and that the teachers wanting redress is called "frivolous" shows a lot of lawyers are idiots who think they're playing chess when they can't even play checkers. Safe to assume that these little darlings will soon be targeting classmates, neighbors and later their coworkers with much more realistic AI deepfakes because hey--no consequences!

If those profiles seemed *at all* plausible, rather than being obvious parodies, then you obviously already have reason to question their suitability to be around kids.

I had this happen to a coworker. Students made dating profiles for her, posting that she had obscene fetishes, etc. She was traumatized when she found out what was all over the internet about her. (I was embarrassed for her. It was invasive, embarrassing, and uncomfortable.) And no, it didn’t look like a parody at all.

But there are posters on this thread who are okay with this, like PP. I guess my coworker just shouldn’t be around kids, huh? I mean, she should accept being publicly humiliated. It’s just a part of the job, I guess. Those silly kids.

[Anonymous]

This is the advantage of private school. They don’t play when it comes to this. I’ve heard of isolated instances and the kids are gone permanently the day after it’s discovered. Sometimes the siblings are gone too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could see this being a thing that teens/tweens just think is absolutely hilarious, but it also sounds like they went entirely too far with it. You can parody your teacher’s manner of speaking or their assignments. You can’t call them pedophiles. I hope the teachers unions come down hard on this and advocate for hard rules on no phones in the classroom. It will protect themselves and the kids too. Such a no brainer but everyone wants to make it sound like the most difficult thing ever.

No, you CAN’T parody your teacher. That’s also not okay. I see how that’s not as serious as the TikTok issue, but it’s a slippery slope.

Teachers shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Dangit. The job is already ridiculously hard without this. And stop expecting teachers to police phones. YOU are the parent. YOU police your child and YOU come down hard on them when they use the phone inappropriately. We can’t expect teachers to fix all of society on 60K and no sleep.

Of course you can parody a teacher. That's protected speech.

May be legal, but still not okay.

Parodying a teacher is absolutely fine. They're public figures from the perspective of the students. It's no different than you parodying a politician.

And now we know why teachers are fleeing.

No. It isn’t absolutely fine. Not at all. I don’t care if it’s legal. If I found out my child was mocking a teacher, I wouldn’t need the court system to penalize them. I’d be doing it myself. Harshly.

Ever watch late night TV? They're parodying public figures in their monologues/acts all the time.

.


Teachers are not public figures.

Head of the local school board, maybe. Some random fourth grade teacher? No.

They are clearly public figures to kids in the community. Don't be ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read it. Have lawyers in my family so free representation. If I were one of those teachers, I would sue the kid(s) (and therefore their parents) for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and maybe also libel, and would not settle.
Hopefully their legal costs would make at least some the families lose their home, or better, everything down to the last shirt on their back. It would be hilarious! Then I'd create a Tiktok account and post a video about the whole thing.

I'm a Plaintiff's lawyer. A decent Plaintiff's lawyer can easily cause the other side to have to spend a quarter of a mil in defense costs.

Also a lawyer and I'd be a little cautious here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an extremely weak claim and rarely succeeds on its own so it's really mostly a libel or defamation charge. Under the right circumstances it could work but in most of these cases it would be tossed on summary judgment because you would have no evidence of harm and the defendant could argue that it was clearly parody or that too few people saw it. Again with the right facts you could press a lawsuit that really cost them but in the vast majority of cases there would not be any evidence of most of the elements of these claims.

Ok, but even if some of the charges are tossed out, wouldn’t it cost the family enough $ in legal fees to be a preventive measure/warning to others??

Not if the court dismisses the claim and awards the defendant attorney's fees ... then it will cost the one who filed the stupid lawsuit in the first place.

Do you know how infrequently courts award attorney fees to defendants? If you have even a colorable claim, that's not a realistic risk.

Because lawyer's can be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous case.

You must not have read the article. The fact that these little sociopaths got away with what they did and that the teachers wanting redress is called "frivolous" shows a lot of lawyers are idiots who think they're playing chess when they can't even play checkers. Safe to assume that these little darlings will soon be targeting classmates, neighbors and later their coworkers with much more realistic AI deepfakes because hey--no consequences!

If those profiles seemed *at all* plausible, rather than being obvious parodies, then you obviously already have reason to question their suitability to be around kids.

I had this happen to a coworker. Students made dating profiles for her, posting that she had obscene fetishes, etc. She was traumatized when she found out what was all over the internet about her. (I was embarrassed for her. It was invasive, embarrassing, and uncomfortable.) And no, it didn’t look like a parody at all.

But there are posters on this thread who are okay with this, like PP. I guess my coworker just shouldn’t be around kids, huh? I mean, she should accept being publicly humiliated. It’s just a part of the job, I guess. Those silly kids.

Invasive? Were they sneaking into her house to figure out what she was in to? Who was being invasive?