Student sues school district for $2 million over bikini photo

[Hum]

A former Georgia high school student has filed a lawsuit claiming that a school administrator impermissibly showed an image of her in a bikini to hundreds of local parents and students.

Chelsea Chaney, who is now a freshman at the University of Georgia, said the photo was taken on a family vacation when she was 17 years old. It shows her in a two-piece bikini next to a cardboard cutout of legendary rapper Snoop Dogg. :huh:

Chaney posted the photo on her Facebook page, believing that only people she had accepted as Facebook friends (and, of course, their friends) would be able to see it.

The director of technology at Starr?s Mill High School then decided to show the image during a well-attended district-wide seminar focused on the long-term dangers of social media.

In the seminar, which allegedly occurred when Chaney was a student at the school and a minor, the caption of Chaney?s bikini-clad photo was allegedly: ?Once it?s there, it?s there to stay.?

?I was embarrassed. I was horrified,? Chaney told a WSB-TV reporter. ?It never crossed my mind that it would ever ? that this would ever happen to me.?

The school official allegedly failed to obtain ? or, apparently, even try to obtain ? Chaney?s or her parents? permission.

The unnamed school official did later apologize, in writing, explaining that the image had been ?randomly chosen.?

Chaney did not accept the apology. She also remains skeptical of the motive.

?I just don?t think it was random,? she said. ?It wasn?t my main picture. You had to go looking through it.?

Pete Wellborn, an attorney now representing Chaney and her family, told the ABC affiliate that he has filed a lawsuit on her behalf for $2 million, alleging that the school district violated federal law, state law and Chaney?s constitutional rights.

Wellborn maintains that a person does not cede rights to others by posting images on Internet sites such as Facebook.

?Their idea that putting something on Facebook gives them a license to steal it and carte blanche to do with it what they did is wrong ethically, it?s wrong morally and it?s absolutely wrong legally,? the attorney argued.

?I just don?t want this to happen to another student,? Chaney added, according to the station.

The school district denied legal liability but otherwise declined to comment on the litigation.

source

[farmeunit]

I can totally see her point, but if it's publicly posted on her page, that's kind of the point.  People can see that stuff that you might not want them to see.  And now you see how it affects your future and perception.

[Hum]

I'd sue too, if they posted me in a bikini. :p

[statm1]

I can totally see her point, but if it's publicly posted on her page, that's kind of the point.  People can see that stuff that you might not want them to see.  And now you see how it affects your future and perception.

It wasn't posted publicly... If you read, it said she had it set for friends of friends. 

[Ambroos]

It wasn't posted publicly... If you read, it said she had it set for friends of friends. 

Well that is pretty much public. Highly unlikely anyone in the room wasn't a 'friend of friend' of hers.

 

A quick and simple Graph Search already turned up quite a large amount of photos of her: "Photos of people named "Chelsea chaney" who go to University of Georgia"

 

Sample (she's on the right):

Very classy lady with excellent privacy settings /s.

[farmeunit]

It wasn't posted publicly... If you read, it said she had it set for friends of friends. 

I said she "believe only friends and friends of friends" would see it.  If you have 100 friends and each of those people has a 100 friends, what are the odds someone you don't want seeing something will see something?  Pretty much public.  If you don't want something public, make it private.  Pretty much cut and dried.

[Hum]

 

Sample (she's on the right):

Very classy lady with excellent privacy settings /s.

 

 

 

What pure trash. :rolleyes:

[Auditor]

Alright.. so how does she came out damage amount of $2M. I am more interested in calculation of her future income or reputation loss which warrants $2M damage. A simple apology from school is sufficient int his case or give her an iphone and be done with it. But $2M... that's ridiculous. School should sue her for harrasment.

[Nogib]

Snoop is not "legendary" and never will be.

[HawkMan]

It's a bikini photo, what's the big deal ?

Just suing for the money because she can. But let's not pretend we wouldn't do the same if we lived in the states where you can sue for trivial things like that. Easy money is easy money.

[DrJohnSmitherson]

School shouldn't have used her photo without permission. Her privacy settings don't matter. They didn't get permission, they shouldn't use it.

[HawkMan]

Alright.. so how does she came out damage amount of $2M. I am more interested in calculation of her future income or reputation loss which warrants $2M damage. A simple apology from school is sufficient int his case or give her an iphone and be done with it. But $2M... that's ridiculous. School should sue her for harrasment.

You sue for "potential" future lost income which could be a lot more, and the younger you are(above a certain age anyway) the more it is, unless you're already working in a high income job where such exposure can ruin your whole career.

Anyway, I think the lawsuit is doing far more damage to her future career options than a image showed at a closed conference with parents and school officials ever did, which is pretty much none.

[123456789A]

She's obviously an attention seeker... first for posting such pictures and second for making a big deal out of it.

[McKay]

Mortified at a bikini photo? Hmmm where do you generally wear Bikinis? In public? 

 

Also dont you lose all rights to the photo when it goes on Facebook?

[Growled Member]

I'd sue too, if they posted me in a bikini. :p

 

I'd sue them for having to look at you in a bikini. :D

[Rippleman]

Let me get this straight....so she will go out in public for the world to see her in a bikini, but now she DOESN'T want people to see her in a bikini? If you go out in public, can you sue people for looking at you? If you did it in public what is different about a picture? people and their privacy seriously make no sense to me at all.

[chrisj1968]

I'd sue too, if they posted me in a bikini. :p

 

Let me get this straight....so she will go out in public for the world to see her in a bikini, but now she DOESN'T want people to see her in a bikini? If you go out in public, can you sue people for looking at you? If you did it in public what is different about a picture? people and their privacy seriously make no sense to me at all.

 

might come down to the "friends" feature in terms of who can see it.

[Rippleman]

 

might come down to the "friends" feature in terms of who can see it.

I know she is bringing that up but I mean, she is at the beach, with hundreds, maybe even thousands of "non-friends" seeing her in a bikini and she doesn't sue any of them... why not?

[Buttus]

it wasn't even a skimpy bikini!   and she wasn't making that stupid duck face either...  i'd be more embrarrassed about the one posted here earlier!  ugh

[COKid]

This case should be thrown out as soon as it hits the judge's desk.

[DavidM]

It's funny, now you can use Google Images and find the same exact image that - "horrified and embarrassed" her, used with her permission (or there could be more lawsuits on the way) and now forever veiwable by several million more people.

 

Way to keep that private stuff.. well private.. or is she hoping to launch her career without having to acutally film a "secret" porn vid that some how gets leaked?

[techbeck]

And now that she called attention to it, everyone with internet access has seen it...probably just an attention ######.

[HawkMan]

She's obviously an attention seeker... first for posting such pictures and second for making a big deal out of it.

 

America is a lot more prude than I thought if bikinis and bikini photos are attention seeking. over here we call them vacation photos since it's what women generally wear on vacation and thus on their vacation photos :)

[123456789A]

America is a lot more prude than I thought if bikinis and bikini photos are attention seeking. over here we call them vacation photos since it's what women generally wear on vacation and thus on their vacation photos :)

 

I was actually referring to standing next to Snoop Dogg, not the bikini. As for the bikini, I'm just glad she's not obese because then I'd be the one who is horrified.

[Steven P. Administrators]

$2 million? Really? If she can prove that the school used a photo of a known student, and it was set to friends of friends then she has every right to complain, but I don't get why it has to be so much money.

 

I see people putting stuff on Facebook all the time that with second thought shouldn't be there, people really do lack common sense sometimes.