14 DAY TRIAL // A University of Georgia student is suing her former high-school for $2M (€1.5M) over using a bikini photo taken off her Facebook account in a presentation about posting risqué shots online.
Chelsea Chaney is now a freshman at the University of Georgia. However, she was only 17 years old when she took the photo and published it on Facebook.
As reported, a rep for the high-school took the photo and included it into a presentation for hundreds of students about the dangers of over-sharing.
"Once it's there, it's there to stay," was added in a caption near the picture.
Chaney feels bullied and mocked over her image being displayed as a bad example for younger students.
"(They) then used it out of context to suggest that Chelsea is a promiscuous, abuser of alcohol," notes the student's attorney, Pete Wellborn.
According to WSB-TV, the campaign also centered around the combination between alcohol consumption and posting inappropriate photos, thus hinting at her being intoxicated at the time.
"I was embarrassed. I was horrified. [...] It never crossed my mind that this would ever, ever happen to me," Chaney says.
The Fayette County Schools director of technology took the photo off her Facebook account himself, but the school claims that there is no legal ground for the lawsuit. The reason for this is that the photo was made public by the student herself.
The Daily Mail reports that the school district has filed a motion to dismiss the original claim, and they are convinced that they have done nothing illegal.
"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," Wellborn argues.