Here We Go Again

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Some of you may remember my posts from a few months back, when my son was being bullied on his school bus. I was debating whether to let him ride the special ed bus, and in the end I did.

Well, apparently it ain't over. The school PTA has a social media page, and the mother of the bully just attacked me out of the blue on it. She went on about her son "never could of done those things" etc. This is the same woman who made up stories about my son peeking in her windows when he didn't even know which house is theirs.
Basically, it's a complete violation of my son's privacy and its libel. I wrote an email to the superintendent, copying and pasting what she wrote, and now I'm waiting for a reply. In the meantime, her post sits there unanswered.

Anyone have any experience or advice dealing with school social media pages and privacy rights?

Holy. Sht!

Please tell me she didn't name you nor your son by name?

Find out who the President of the PTA is (you probably know. I don't. I am a bad mom that way). Usually they have an email address. Email him/her and tell them that if the message isn't removed immediately, you will be contacting your lawyer (even if you don't have one). In your email I would also pointedly ask what kind of community the PTA supports when public statements regarding private matters are condoned or tolerated.

I would not respond to her post in any way. At all. I could see myself very easily getting worked up and posting something in the heat of a "flame war" that would make me equally guilty.

Honestly, many people will read it and say WTF! I know I would read it and automatically think that something was wrong with her, or anyone, who would use a PTA social media site to rant about something that is 100% unrelated to PTA business. By not responding, you are leaving her standing as the lone loose cannon.

Wow. I am hoping that the only reason this is still sitting on the PTA page is that the PTA member who has the ability to delete it is not online. But, I agree that you should contact the PTA president. I know my school's website has the PTA email address on their site, you might find it there.

And, I would definitely take a screenshot.

If this was happening at my kid's school (and I am on the PTA), I guarantee that everybody who saw that post would think that the mom who posted that must be nuts, and it would automatically invalidate her side of the story (to most) with your son and her son. I know that if this happened on our PTA social media page (which we actually don't have, but if we did), it would result in an email blast, or a post about appropriate behavior online, then the principal would speak about it herself at the next PTA meeting, and the parent would also most likely be called into the principal's office and spoken to.

Was it the school superintendent, or the district superintendent that you contacted?

Stay strong. There is nothing that you could say that would speak louder than what she has already done.

I've never contacted the superintendent before, so I guess we'll see what happens.
I think they need to make a list of "rules" for posting on school-affiliated pages. I'm hoping this woman gets banned from the PTA page for her remarks, but I try never to expect anything.

Didn't hear back from anyone at the school, but the entire thread has disappeared from the PTA page.
I'm happy!

Good Outcome. I'm so happy for you! Can't have been easy to wait, though.

Make sure you keep documentation on this and anything further - print out everything you've sent, all the responses you recieved, make sure all of it has dates, and put it in a folder.

If you hadn't, I would still contact the PTA president and politely let them know that there was an incident, you have contacted the school and they are handling it, and you are concerned that it should be kept private out of consideration for everyone involved. (Having been a PTA president, it is hard to stay on top of stuff like this, especially if you don't know what it is about or who is involved.) Sometimes there is a social media webmaster, and they usually have a posting policy.

Here is ours, for reference:

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