Creative Services
The family of Nia Whims, an 8th grader from Florida, says she was wrongfully detained at a juvenile detention facility for 11 days after her school falsely accused of her threatening students and staff. Now, the 13-year-old’s mother, Lezlie-Ann Davis, is suing Renaissance Charter School at Pines for the incident.
According to the lawsuit, Nia reported multiple incidents of bullying in August and requested a meeting with school officials on more than one occasion, but the meeting never happened, NBC News noted. The bullying continued until Nia’s mom finally decided to take her daughter out of the school and enroll her somewhere else. Sadly, the young teen’s tormentors continued to taunt her, this time, taking to social media to impersonate her with a fake account.
RELATED CONTENT: Cardi B Says She Was Bullied Into No Longer Discussing Politics
The bully, who was identified as “M.S.” in the suit, created a fake Instagram account in Nia’s name and allegedly sent messages that “included threats to blow up the school and kill people including M.S. and a teacher.” The threatening messages were disclosed to officials and the Renaissance Charter School was put on a temporary lockdown until deemed safe.
Nia’s mother said she was traumatized by the entire incident.
“She was heartbroken. She came home and she threw away her school uniform,” Lezlie-Ann Davis told ABC News. “Nobody looked into what damage it did. Emotionally, mentally, you know, and she’s still growing. She’s young and she’s growing. So as adults, a lot of things in our past affect us and I think it’s something that will affect her.”
Young Nia was arrested on Nov. 19, and charged with a second-degree felony for threatening to cause bodily harm. She was released on Nov. 29.
In addition to suing Renaissance Charter School, Nia’s family is also seeking “damages in excess of $30,000” from Instagram and its parent company Meta. The suit claimed that the social media platform failed to “promptly provide or cooperate with the investigating officers ” which led to a delay in police declaring Nia’s innocence.
During a press conference earlier this week, Nia told reporters, “I feel distanced. I really don’t want to talk to anybody,” about the devastating situation.
RELATED CONTENT: What Adult Bullying Looks Like
