They Gave Her No Choice
The young girl protagonizing this story had no other option than to take action against his school and a well-known social network. She just had to do it to protect her rights and her honor. She had been suffering cyberbullying for months, and both the school staff and one of the world’s most used social networks had been looking the other side.
It was an outrage and they gave her no choice. But now, it was finally time for justice.
We Need To Talk About Bullying
Unfortunately, racism and bullying are still very relevant issues in America’s high schools. For the most part, teachers and principals do their best to prevent this type of behavior; but there are always some rotten apples.
If you add this to the absolute lack of control that social networks exercise over underage users, you got the recipe for some unpleasant episodes just like this one.
The Story Of Nia Whims
Nia Whims is a 13-year-old African American girl from Broward, Florida. She was a student at Renaissance Charter School, at Pines. She excelled at school. Still, she often experienced certain animosity from some of her peers.
But was it all due to envy and jealousy? Or there was some other reason why other students didn’t like it?
There Was More To It
Apparently, that wasn’t all. From what has been reported to the press, there also seems to be an element of racism in the bullying that Nia used to experience.
At first, she just reacted the way she was advised: she just ignored the bullies. She thought that they just wanted attention and, by not paying them any mind, they would just get tired of it. But it didn’t get better.
They Didn’t Leave Her Alone
Instead, the bullying got worse and worse. Nia was a confident girl and she didn’t care much about what other people thought about her as long as she was doing good. But it started getting too much to handle.
And at some point, something happened that was enough to make Nia snap and say “enough’s enough.”
Some Mysteryous Messages
One morning, some students from Renaissance Charter School woke up with some messages on their phones. They were sent through a well-known app/social network on which users can share and comment on pictures. Yeah, that one you’re thinking about. No need to say names.
The content of these messages was absolutely appalling.
Death Threats
All of the messages contained threats and insults. Some were really serious; there were even death threats. And they all came from an account that seemed to belong to one person: Nia.
Word quickly got around about this incident, and soon the whole school was talking about it. Some students decided to take this issue to the principal and tell him about the terrible messages so he would do something about it.
The Principal Steps In
Immediately, the principal called Nia into his office. The bullying she was getting as backlash from the messages was getting almost unbearable, so Nia expected the call to finally solve her problem.
Little did she know that those weren’t the principal’s intentions. Her real problems were just about to begin.
He Interrogated Her
The first thing the principal did was ask Nia about the messages. She denied having sent them. Then the principal showed her some screenshots of the messages and the account from which they were sent and asked if that account was hers.
Nia denied everything. She said it was a fake account created by the same peers that had been bullying her for months. She claimed she was being framed.
But He Wasn’t Buying It
But the principal didn’t believe her. She temporarily expelled Nia from Renaissance Charter School until the matter was clarified. He then called the Pembroke Pines Police Department. Soon, a police car pulled up near the school, and Nia was detained.
She was released shortly after, but the damage was done. And after the police investigated the incident, their conclusions were in tune with what everyone is expecting.
She Was Framed
Nia was found to be not the owner of the account, and not the sender of those horrific messages. So it had to be one of her peers, impersonating her and, as Nia herself claimed, framing her.
That was when Nia’s mother decided to take action against all those that had damaged her daughter’s name and honor.
She Got Herself A Lawyer
She got in contact with a top-notch lawyer named Marwan Porter. Now the thing to do was this: make everyone who had looked the other way while her daughter was getting bullied, and all those that had contributed to her being accused of something she never did, pay consequences.
There were a lot of people who could get into trouble: the students, the principal, the school staff who ignored the bullying… and lastly, the social network in which the fake account was created and through which the infamous messages were sent.
She Sued The Social Network
That’s right: Nia’s mom sued one of the biggest social networks on the planet. They were responsible, the lawyer argued, for the bullying and impersonation of an underage girl. That was a serious enough offense.
But that wasn’t all there was to it.
Institutional Racism
Nia’s lawyer claimed that the whole incident, as well as the way in which it was handled by the Pembroke Pines Police Department, reeked of racism. "If it was a young Caucasian girl ... and this happens, does it go down like this?" he said at a news conference.
That's certainly something to think about. Would the principal have been so quick to call the police, and would the police have detained a 13-year-old girl in different circumstances?
There’s A Lot To Think About
The lawsuit filed by Nia's mother is still running its course, and we hope that those that are to blame for this situation pay consequences. But until then, this event is food for thought.
Should there be stronger regulations to control how minors use social networks? Should America's school staff get some education about cyberbullying? Finally, what can be done about the racism that's still present in America's school system and police forces?