| Updated: 1/03 9:26 am |
Published: 1/02 4:02 pm
|
A Tulsa mother is suing the Tulsa Public School district, two students and their parents and the social networking site Twitter over a picture post.
Court records show the mother is suing over a partially naked photo of her daughter that was allegedly posted on Twitter.
She claims her daughter was changing after a basketball game when she was restrained by two other team members from Booker T. Washington High School’s basketball team and a third team member took a photo of her daughter in her underwear and posted it on Twitter in November of 2011.
Court records allege the mother told the basketball coach and was told they would “handle the issue.”
The mother alleges in court filings that her daughter was ostracized, bullied and physically attacked by other students after the picture was posted.
She also claims the she and her daughter complained to the school's dean and assistant principal but was told “there was nothing the school could do about the verbal and physical assaults being committed because of this picture posted on Twitter.”
Court records allege the mother complained to a TPS administrator and was told “she needed to drop her complaint because these incidents make the school look bad to TPS district administrators.”
She is suing for damages for negligence, negligent supervision, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil assault, civil battery, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and punitive damages.
This suit alleges that Twitter should have "used reasonable care in the administration of its website so as to prevent the publication of photographs of minors while undressing."
In the sites lengthy terms of service, Twitter says “All Content, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person who originated such Content.”
That along with this fine print will likely be in Twitter’s favor if this case ever makes it to the courtroom, “Under no circumstances will Twitter be liable in any way for any content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Services or broadcast elsewhere.”
The attorney for the girl and her mother says this case is different because the picture stayed on the social media site for three to four weeks. He went on to tell FOX23 the picture was essentially child porn, a minor in her underwear, and he said the site did nothing to stop the picture from being retweeted.
FOX23 contacted Twitter but the site did not return our calls.
