Could we really be sued for slander?

Question

Ok so I had a myspace.
Yesterday,Me and about 8 others were called to our school office to meet with the principle.
She was very,very upset the most anyone has ever seen and was crying and screaming at us.
She had found all of our myspace's in a group called the "I hate...(and our math teacher's name)"
She had printed all of our myspace pages out for proof and had them on her computor at the time.
We are all supspened from the school computors and the school is supposedly getting the computor lab computors checked.
All the computors are unplugged as well.
We had to apologize the the teacher and she cried.
None of us know what is going to happen but our computor teacher and principle told us we could be sued for slander.
There was never a topic or feedback in the group so we never bashed her or anything.
Could we all seriosuley be sued and what do you think might happen?
k.thanx.=] [e-mail]

Answer 1

You can only be sued for slander if you stated something about your teacher that wasn't true. And being under age I don't think you would be sued directly, perhaps your parents would be sued.

This sounds like your school administration is going way too far. They made you apologies? For what? You guys were just letting off a little steam, and having fun. As long as you tell the truth, any public opinion made is within your right. You should be able to stand by what you say, and not have to put up with a bunch of slobbering school teachers playing "secret police". Why are your teachers crying? Sounds like they are the ones who need to grow up! You have a professional relationship with your teachers, as long as you are doing your end of the bargain (e.g. doing class work, home work, etc.), why should they care what you think of them? If I were a school teacher I would have no false sense that my students were my friends. Come on!

Answer 2

I live in san antonio, tx and right now there is a case of some students here being sued by the principal of their school because they created a fake myspace page about her so I would say that yes it could happen if you actually said something about her that was not true, however I don't think that just saying you hate her would qualify as slander. I think you should have your parents contact a lawyer and get a qualified legal opinion if you are serious about this.

Answer 3

The short answer is that anybody can sue anybody else for anything. That doesn't mean they'll win though.

The longer answer is that they don't have a slander case against you. Slander only applies to the spoken word, not to the written word. They could sue you for libel though, but it's doubtful that they'd win that either.

For them to successfully sue you for libel, they'd have to be able to prove two things. i) That what you wrote about them was untrue, and that you knew it to be untrue. and ii) That you writing that has materially damaged them. Hurting their feelings is not an actionable damage; it would have had to hurt them monetarially in some way, say if the principle fired them because of the lies you wrote.

So from the facts that you laid out, you didn't lie about anything, and the math teacher hasn't been materially harmed. They can sue if they want, but they won't win.

It also seems very unfair that they'd suspend you for posting your opinion - that strikes me as a clear violation of free speech - especially if you go to a government run public school. Talk to your parents about it, and get them to complain to the school board to rescind your suspension and have it removed from the record. If that doesn't work, talk to the ACLU.

For legal reasons, I should say that nothing in the above is meant to be legal advice.

Answer 4

Well, technically, you can be sued for anything by anyone. The trick comes in *proving* it. In order to successfully sue someone for slander, they have to prove irreparable harm in their community, that their job and lifestyle were impacted by what you said and they suffered some form of actual loss of reputation, income or other property. Just saying you hate someone is hardly enough to do that.

Now if you were spreading rumors that said your math teacher was a drug user and it had caused her to lose her job or another opportunity she had, then she could definitely sue you for slander (provided the accusation was false) and would more than likely win.

And even more technically, it would be libel you would be in risk of being sued for. Libel is when it's written, slander is when it's spoken. Not too impressive if your principal doesn't know the difference.

Answer 5

You can be sued for anything.Proving slander is a task in and of itself. I do not know what anybody wrote or did not write on anything that is connected to a Network about anybody that may or may not have put up a web site for,on or alluding to in any way,shape or form.
Denial is also a river in Egypt.

Answer 6

I was threatened one time to be sued for slander, but it didn't hold water, I think you have to be a public figure and not have any past skeletons in the closet that someone could find. People throw that around a lot to intimidate you. Intimidation is not allowed either.

Answer 7

Yes, except it would be for libel since the words were written and not merely spoken. I wouldn't worry though, the teacher hasn't really suffered any damages, and even if she had, I doubt any of you have assets to make it worth while.

Answer 8

You sure can, absolutely. It has happened a few dozen times already. If you have worries about being sued, it is time for all of you to kiss up to that teacher for pretty much the rest of the year. If you have caused her emotional trauma, and she leaves teaching because of it, you could all be in deep trouble, and so will your parents if you are under aged because they are legally responsible. Good luck.

Answer 9

You probably won't get sued. In order to slander someone, you have to actually say something about them that could be proved to have damaged their reputation, marriage, social standing, etc...

Answer 10

You could but I doubt you will be sued. Suspension, especially for a first offence should drive home what is correct behavior.