From Friday's California Court of Appeal decision in Norway v. Lee (written by Justices Kathleen Banke, joined by Justice Monique Langhorne Wilson and Alameda Superior Court Judge Arturo Castro):
This case arises from a wave of cyber bullying that occurred at Lowell High School when plaintiff and respondent Kimi Norway, and defendant and appellant Jonathan Lee, were students there…. In the fall of 2021, Norway was a senior …, involved in numerous school activities, and a student officer. As a student officer she was required to take a leadership class.
In October of that year, she attended a school dance and took photographs. She uploaded a number of the photos to a school Instagram account as part of her leadership class requirements. Unbeknownst to her (she had not been living in the area the prior year during the Covid-19 closure), one of the photos contained the image of a student accused of sexual assault.
Within hours, students posted disparaging comments about the accused student on the photo in which he was shown. One student sent a message to Norway stating the photo should be removed. Norway immediately did so, but also questioned whether the negative comments about the accused student were an example of bullying.
A week later, during a discussion in the leadership class about "recent allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault at the school," several of the students, including [another student, referred to as] C.K., "publicly and vocally accused [Norway] of enabling sexual abuse and minimizing the plight of sexual abuse victims." The teacher allowed the discussion to continue unchecked, resulting in more "defamatory" and "vitriolic" verbal attacks on Norway.
The following day, Norway was the subject of "myriad Instagram posts" accusing her of "'victim blaming,'" "'invalidating survivor's experiences,'" "'defend[ing] sexual assaulters,'" engaging in "'performance ass activism,'" and using "'her power as [a Lowell Student Association] Officer to defend abusers.'" {Students in the leadership class had "unfettered access to post on official school Instagram accounts" and continually updated the accounts, including updates about Norway's supposed support of sexual assaulters and harassers.} Students branded her an "'abuser,'" "'sexual assaulter,'" "'serial manipulator,'" and "'literal abuser.'" Some called for her to be removed from her student office.
Among the Instagram posts that day was one by Lee, stating as follows:
"I'm going to start this off by thanking those who have been brave enough to share their experiences through their statements. They have all inspired me to come out and speak upon [sic] my own experiences. Similar to [another student's post], I'm not sure what 'category' my experience falls under. I've also been reluctant about sharing my experience as the wider majority of abusers have appeared to be male. Nonetheless, I have come to reason that there is no reason for male experiences with sexual assault, sexual harassment, abuse, manipulation, etc. not to be heard. To echo a message that others have spread through their statements, I know that there are many survivors out there and I hope that my speaking out against a manipulator/harasser/abuser inspires others to do the same. Unfortunately, our school systems are not equipped with administrators who make survivors feel comfortable enough to share our stories, leaving us with no choice but to speak out on social media.
"With that being said, here are some of the major incidents that occurred between myself and my mental and physical abuser, Kimi Norway:
