From P.S. v. R.S., decided Wednesday by the Indiana Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge L. Mark Bailey, joined by Judges Terry A. Crone and Rudolph R. Pyle III; for clarity, I'll describe "R.S." as Student (which he was at the time the criticism began) and "P.S." as Critic:
At the beginning of his sophomore year in high school, [Student] created a video of himself "spelling … out a racist slur." The video surfaced on social media during [Student]'s senior year in high school, and the video continues to circulate on social media.
[Critic], a concerned citizen, saw the video and began commenting about it and [Student] on her publicly accessible social media page. [Critic] "ke[pt] posting and reposting negative things against [Student,] … and … calling him out by his name as well." And [Critic] and other citizens appeared at the local school board meeting to "try[ ] to get some type of disciplinary" action imposed. [Student]'s father ("Father") contacted [Critic] and asked her to remove the video from her social media feed so that Father could "take care of [disciplining his son] in-house." [Critic] complied with Father's request but "then [the video] came back numerous times [and] other people started sharing it."
On May 3, 2023, [Student] filed a petition for a protection order against [Critic], alleging that [Critic] had used social media to stalk [Student], slander him, and disseminate false information…. [Student] testified that in making the video, he made a "dumb, stupid mistake" three years ago that had been circulating on social media for the "past seven [ ] months[,] and [Critic] has been slandering my name." Father told the trial court that the "only thing [Father and [Student]'s mother] have asked for from day one [is to] let us take care of our son, … but again, … [Critic] seems to keep … posting and reposting negative things against him."
