After their 16-year-old daughter was bullied on Instagram, two parents are suing seven teens for libel along with all of their parents for negligence.
The unique case could set a precedent for cyberbullying, which has been a growing concern in the wake of cases like Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old in Florida who committed suicide after being maliciously bullied on Facebook.
According to Houston attorney Tej Paranjpe, the parents in this recent case are pursuing the lawsuit partly on principle.
"We're being super-aggressive about it because this behavior really needs to stop," Paranjpe, lawer for parents Reymundo Esquivel and Shellie Tingle-Esquivel, told Yahoo Shine. "It's really an issue of principle."
The 16-year-old, who is not being named for privacy reasons, has been the target of bullying at Klein High School in Texas for around a year, Tingle-Esquivel said. After months of in-person bullying, the attacks came to a head online through Instagram.
Her daughter's picture appeared on a page called "2014 Klein Hoes," a student-made Instagram account that garnered around 900 followers. The photo appeared along with many pictures of many other girls, some of whom were topless in the images.
Tingle-Esquivel told Yahoo Shine that the 16-year-old's photo was targeted with "vulgarities" and "explicit sexual comments." The online backlash left her daughter "crying and really upset--almost hysterical."
Acting for her daughter and the other girls pictured on the cruel Instagram page, Tingle-Esquivel quickly retained Paranjpe, who got the page removed with restraining orders against the seven students involved.
The lawsuits are intended to make people aware of the problem and reduce cyberbullying.
"It's to let kids know that this is not acceptable," Tingle-Esquivel told Yahoo Shine.
The tactic of suing the students and parents connected to the incident is unusual, said Dr. Justin Patchin, criminal justice professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-director of the national Cyberbullying Research Center.
Parents are more likely to sue the school for not responding "appropriately," he told Yahoo Shine.
While administrators at Klein were "supportive" and moved students out of her daughter's class, they didn't work to get the Instagram page taken down after learning about it, Tingle-Esquivel said.
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